I've been really enjoying (and benefiting from) from this thread.  It's funny, much of the information being presented is mutually exclusive....yet I can say for a fact that I've found almost all of what has been said to be true.  We taught queen rearing to a number of beekeepers this year, and provided virgins to the students (and to other beekeepers).  Here is a bit of what we've learned this year (and how):

1.  A bunch of shaken nurse bees won't care for queens alone in cages...therefore, the bees won't care for the virgin queens, and they will starve unless provided with food.  This we learned the hard way.

2.  Newly emerged virgins in cages (JZBZ mostly this year, but more on that below) placed between frames of open brood in a queenless nuc are cared for quite well...therefore, the bees will care for the virgin queens...if you set things up properly.

3.  We've been using the JZBZ cages with the candy cap, and no candy.  We've lost queens (virgins and mated queens) that jam themselves up into the tube pressed against the cap.  Some of this I think is due to the "pheromone like" substance used in the manufacture of these cages (and perhaps an escape instinct)...but it sure is a bummer.  I imagine that if the tube is filled with candy this isn't an issue.  Another local beekeeper who started rearing queens this year simply drilled out the cork hole in s standard 3hole cage to fit a JZBZ wide base cup...the queens emerged into the cage (in a hive) and were well cared for...I don't know the specifics of the makeup of his bank, but he had them for at least 2 weeks before we got 4 of them...2 mated and started successful colonies.

4.  Many of our bees are 1-2 hours away from our home, and we have busy schedules, and one car.  I try to plan the queen rearing timing the best I can (night grafting when necessary), but sometimes I need to hold them for a few days.  

5.  Our last install was on July 4th, we had started 6 packages at this location, and at their first check, 2 were not happening, so they were combined into 4.  On the 4th, we split off 8 nucs of varying strength for a total 8 nucs and 2 stronger colonies (with laying queens that came with the packages).  The nucs were made up in the afternoon, we had a bit to eat, then went back to add the queens.  My plan was to release the queens with a wad of toilet paper in the candy tube (about a 20min release....the hive is undisturbed when the bees have access to the queen)...but when I placed the cages on the top bars, the bees paid zero attention.  I didn't use any smoke, and simply walked the queens onto the top bars of each nuc in turn with no smoke, no smearing in honey...nothing.  The queens were all virgins, 72-48 hours old (a guess...I might be able to find the exact dates), and had been banked between frames of open brood within hours of emerging (in an incubator).  I was concerned that the queens would "smell like bees" and be hard to introduce.  The two remaining queens we "walked" into the queenright larger hives.
When we returned 3 weeks later, 7 of the 8 queens had mated and had good patterns relative to the population of each colony, one of the walked in queens had taken, and the other was in the middle of some kind of supercedure (I think Erik Osterlund took photos of a virgin walking within an inch of the laying queen).  At that time there was significant chalkbrood, but since the nurse bees were still of package bee stock, we wanted to see what the colonies would do when the brood turned over.  Ramona saw the bees on Wednesday...and all but one (the one that had the chalkbrood eating slug) seemed to have recovered....the capped brood patterns still had some holes (presumably from the chalk), but all mummies were removed from the comb, and the bees seemed a bit more energetic.  This is our one yard where we had no real influence on the drones in the area (except for the drones from the package queens).

6.  We've sent people off with cells and virgin queens under many circumstances (some more successful than others).  The absolute best was a queenrearing student who wanted 20 virgins at once.  Since they are fragile, I hate to give too many at once...so he left work early and stopped at a few of his yards on his way to our house...filling 5 4way queen castles in the back of his truck.  He backed into our driveway, and we popped a near emergence (within a few hours) cell into each section of each castle (he is an excellent carpenter and made bodies, tops and bottoms that all were grooved for the dividers)...then he drove off.  I haven't gotten an exact count from him, but I think he said that the vast majority made it.

7.  Larry Conner talked about working with virgins in a fairly recent bee mag article.  He said that the reason not to direct release virgins is that they might fly off (I had this happen the other day....but I stood still with the top off the hive and she landed right in the right hive)....but I agree with Peter...you should have more than you need on hand if you want enough.

8.  We do emerge our virgins in cages in an incubator.  The JZBZ wide base cups sit nicely in the Nicot hair curler cages (a bit of wax on the rim holds it in place).  I moosh a bit of honey in the side of the cage, and provide a bit of water (droplets in the mesh of the cage).  As soon as i see them emerged, I examine them, and place them in JZBZ cages (with the problems noted above)...feed with honey until I can get them banked in a queenless nuc between frames of open brood.  I currently have a couple that are on 4 weeks.  I will probably try to make up a couple of mating nucs on Monday, just to see if they are able to mate properly.

9.  The JZBZ bars to hold the JZBZ cages do not accommodate the caps.  The supplier I ordered from had full sized bars for $1.40, and half sized for $1.10...since I wanted to see what was going to be useful, I ordered both....the half sized bars are the full sized bars sawn in half.  Don't buy the half sized bars :)  The battery box also doesn't accommodate the caps.

10.  When talking about banking virgins, I see the utility in my operation for doing so for short periods...and since I've been so busy, it would be nice to keep them longer....I don't seem to have a hard time keeping them alive, but I don't know how they "deteriorate" and over what time period.

11.  I think the best practice is that one can check cells or virgins at 2 weeks (although I sometimes miss a queen and don't see evidence of laying until 3 weeks)...one can graft the same day that virgins are introduced (or a week later), and when checking if the queens are mated, new virgins are on hand in case things didn't go well....this is better than raising one batch and saving them for 3 weeks....but it's also nice to have spare queens around that didn't take up the resources of a mating nuc.

deknow

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm