I have participated in the PA queen improvement project for a number of years, and I can tell you my anecdotal experience. 

I have had great success with the 48 hour queen cells every year (except in the nuc that had a stealth virgin queen, doh.) The way it has worked is the fabulous fellow who leads the group grafts all the larvae 2 days before our appointed meeting time. He puts the in cells into starter colonies, waits until delivery day, consolidates the ones that took into one frame of a 5 frame travel nuc packed with nurse bees.

We all meet at the appointed time/place, and there he distributes the cells with one or two cells in a styrofoam cup with the queen cups hung on a small cut-off part of a queen cup bar. That bar just gets wedged in the top of the cup. A wet paper towel is put in the bottom of the styrofoam cup to keep it moist. We put a lid back on the cup if it has a long journey.

I have had mine out of the hive for up to 4 hours and still had a good queen come out. These queens and their daughters are my best performers in term of over-wintering survival and honey production. Some have lived through 2 seasons. Probably it is because of the better genetics from Perdue or the like. But I don’t think they have suffered much from their few hours of being unattended by bees. 

As for temperature control, we usually meet in early June, and I drive with the windows open or with the air conditioner on if it is hot in the car. I keep the car comfortable for me, which is around 80F. Because the cup is basically closed and insulated by the styrofoam, the temperature fluctuations that may happen are at least slowed down. 

Most of the beekeepers who participate (of varying experience levels) have had good success with their queens. I think it is about 80% that hatch out ok, and that is including all the user errors, like my virgin queen nuc. The rate for mated queens is lower, obviously, but overall, I think the method is sound. Feel free to email me with more specific questions if desired.

Ruth

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