Paul Cronshaw wrote:
>Went back two days later.. and she was dead in the box.  In retrospect I
>should have put her in one of the wooden, screen queen shipping cages and
>left her in for longer (3 days), then manually released her.
 
Last year I had a hive that swarmed and then, for some reason, the new
queen just wasn't a good layer.  The hive was despondent and was losing
population.  I decided to requeen.  I bought a new buckfast queen from
Weaver's in Navasota, TX, a more local and very reputable supplier.
Before putting the wooden queen cage in the hive I released all of the
attendants.  I found the old queen, pinched her and left her in the
bottom of the hive.  I set the queen cage in the hive, candy end up,
and left the hive alone for several days.  When I went back to check on
her the queen was dead.  The bees had eaten away the candy and killed
her for some reason.  I was out $14.  Does this just happen sometimes?
Is there a better way?