I have saved extra queens in the past by simply banking the cages on the
top bars of a colony (with candy covered).  I kept some for over a month
last year and they remained viable.

     A friend just called and said that he had placed nine queens in a
colony and two days later they were dead.  These were in cages without
attendants, and when placed in the colony he saw the bees feeding them.
He feels that maybe he should have used a queen excluder between the old
queen and the banked ones.  I don't think I did that last year, unless it
was by accident.

     Another friend has four queens from the same shipment banked the
same way and they are alright as were the 25 already installed.

     Any comments?

Jerry in PA