Hi I am not sure whether this question is aimed at myself...As I never mentioned "plucking attendants". Rick Green instigated the phrase "queens true attendants" and I take this to mean the bees in the immediate proximity to the queen when she is found on a comb. I prefer to prefill the cages with bees that have been shaken from frames into a "Marburg swarm box". This process ensures that most of the bees selected are "young" and "up for" the job of feeding the queen. For those unfamiliar with the "Marburg swarm box" I have copied a chunk from one of my recent posts to the Irish Beekeeping List. (this describes the procedure for filling mini nucs... For filling cages with attendants a different lid is used that holds a row of inverted cages for the bees to walk into and the spraying bit is not used.) Quote I just received my copy of "Bee Improvement" and noticed that some difficulty has been found in filling mating nucs owing to the older bees flying away. It helps if you can split the bees into "young" or "old" groups before you even attempt to put them in the nucs. There is an ideal tool for doing this...It is called the "Marburg swarm box"...And I will describe how it is made and used. It is a box that will hold 5 or perhaps 6 frames but for this purpose it is used without any frames inside. There is a 9 mm plywood plate on one long face that is hinged at the bottom edge. The front and back edges of this plate have 9 mm plywood quadrants fitted so that the appended assembly forms a funnel when swung open. The bottom 50 mm of the box side, inside this funnel, is replaced with zinc queen excluder material. In use, frames of bees are first very lightly shaken so that old flying bees take to the air. Then the frames are held within the funnel and shaken to dislodge almost all bees. The bees that end up in a heap at the bottom of the funnel still contain young and old bees but a high proportion of young bees will migrate through the queen excluder into the dark interior of the box whereas the older bees tend to walk upwards and take off into the air. This separation method is not perfect but after a dozen or so frames of bees have been shaken into the funnel a high proportion of the bees in the box will be "young". Have available a pressure bottle type sprayer either full of water or water with about a teaspoon of sugar per pint added. ( I use "Foxes Glacier Mints"). Close the funnel and jolt the box sharply on the ground then quickly open the box and spray the liquid liberally on the bees. The wet, slightly sticky bees can then be portioned out into the mating nucs using a ladle or a plastic drinks machine cup (which holds about 1000 bees). shut the bees in and leave in a cool place overnight. The grooming and cleaning knits the bees into a colony during this period. Add you queencell and let the bees fly on the following day or if in the same apiary as the original source of bees make your preparations a day earlier and confine them for one and a half days instead of overnight. There is a demonstration of this technique on the BIBBA video "Locko Park 88" which I believe has been renamed recently. Unquote Regards From:- Dave Cushman, G8MZY Beekeeping and Bee Breeding, website http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman Archives of IBList, website http://website.lineone.net/~d.cushman