From: allen <[log in to unmask]>
>Introducing virgins has a reputation for being tricky.
>Any advice?
we are currently doing this, and it's working well (better than 80% success on the first try).
we are using a zoomed reptibator incubator (designed for reptile eggs).
http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Reptibator-Egg-Incubator/dp/B0038Z5RMU
the person i know with the most experience in this is dee lusby, so i followed her advice (mostly)...which is as follows:
1. you don't want any scent from a hive, from other virgins, from a cage, etc. on the virgin queen....so the cell is placed on top of a 3dram glass vial in the incubator. when the queen emerges, she falls down to the bottom of the vial. you can put a small drop of honey on the tip of the cell before emergence so the queen can feed on something when she emerges (the little circle of wax usually falls to the bottom of the vial with the queen). don't put honey at the bottom of the vial, it will make the newly emerged (and soft) queen stick.
2. after emergence, i squeeze the tip of the cell flat, put a small drop of honey on one of the flat tip of the cell (from where the cell is squeezed). i then press the cell back into the vial opening to keep the queen in (but not so far that no air can get in), lay the vial on its side (with the drop of honey on the top of the flat) still in the incubator, and introduce within 48 hours or so.
i had queenless nucs to introduce these into, and simply smoked them heavily and ran the virgin (directly from the glass vial) between the top bars.
i don't know if the glass vials make a difference (it sure is tempting to emerge the cells directly into cages), but so far it seems to be working just fine.
Mike Palmer and Kirk Webster are going to do a "making up double nucs for overwintering" workshop at the upcoming Northeast Treatment Free Beekeeping Conference, and we will have virgins to introduce into those. I spoke with Kirk this morning, and we both agreed that it is probably best to wait 24 hours between making up the nucs and introducing the virgins....but i expect we will try it both ways (and perhaps some with cells).
i don't know anyone else who does the glass vial thing, and i haven't tried it any other way, so i have no way to make any comparison. i do like this design for an inhive incubator bar, but i'd be concerned about scent issues without testing it side by side with what we are doing:
http://www.myoldtools.com/Bees/incubator/
dee claims good success requeening with virgins emerged in vials without dequeening the hive first. she simply removes the top cover, smokes the entrance heavily until smoke comes out the top, and then lets the queen in on the top before closing the cover.
your mileage may vary.
deknow
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