At 21:03 29/09/97 +0100, you wrote:
>This is my first year with bees.
>
>Recently I got assistance in introducing a new docile type queen to replace
>a 1995 queen. However, only three days after introducing the new queen, I
>opened up the hive to retrieve the Butler Cage and had a bit of a look around.
>
>Afterwards I was told by a beekeeper that I should have stayed away from the
>hive for 6 days, otherwise the bees might reject the queen.
>
>So now I just have to wait until I return from my vacation on 17Th October
>to see have I a problem.
>
>My question is this: Are the bees not behaving against their own interests
>by killing the queen?
>
>If the hive does not have young eggs. they have no means of raising a new
>queen. They are thus faced with the prospect of laying workers which can
>produce drones only. Are they not thus on their way to extinction?. Can
>anybody give the rationale for their action (if that is what they have done).
>
>One other question - should I have made the hive queenless some hours or
>days  before I introduced the new queen?. I did not do this - I removed the
>old queen just a few minutes before I inserted the new one.
>
>Thanks for help
>
>
>Sincerely
>
>Tom Barrett
>Computer Software Solutions Ltd
>49 South Park
>Foxrock
>Dublin 18
>Ireland
>
>e mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>
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