Kelley,
It's called queen banking.  When I get in queens they come in a RiteWay
shipper that holds 104 to a box.  If we use them that day I'll leave them in
the box.  The queens are all in Calif. Mini-cages (great product) that only
have the queen (no attendants, the bees are shook from a few frames into the
box outside of the cage) and the sugar tube is replaced with a cork.  I like
to use masking tape instead of the candy plug.  If I'm keeping them without
use for a while they can be placed in special frames that hold each cage
facing outward like a small high-rise apartment building.  These are placed
inside a hive that the queen was removed and the house bees take care of them
for a long time.  Lately I've been placing the shipper in a empty shallow box
and placing a shallow framed divide on top of that with a few cello sponges
inside for water and it has worked great.  I put the unit on the back of my
truck every day and have a continuous  source of ready queens in cages and
don't have to remove them from the special frames.  They will last for weeks
but I try to use them quickly.
Hope that helps.
 
Brian
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