My post raised another observation/question. What if the delay in releasing
queens is a cause of queen failure with newly installed packages.

Might not be a far fetched as it seems. We know that larva release
pheromones. If the pheromones are not present, that might indicate a queen
failure to the workers and they would take appropriate action and supersede
the queen at the earliest time after they have some eggs to work with. That
would put "queen failure" at 10 days and beyond until she starts laying
after release. 10 days assumes immediate start of laying and 3 days until
larva show up.Then you have the delay until the pheromones reach the level
to signal all is well.

So immediate release would help prevent queen "failure" associated with
packages.

Again, happy to be corrected.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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