Hi to all on BEE-L

Kyle wrote:
If I
understand right, the virgin queen emerges from the cell
into a cage. (in a cell-finisher colony).  You remove the
cage with the new queen and approach the hive to be
re-queened.  (You mark the queen.)  You smoke the hive
heavily through the bottom entrance, open it up and let the
virgin queen out of the cage.  The heavy smoking fouls the
bees sense of smell so thatthe old queen and the workers
accept the new virgin.  She mates and takesup her motherly
duties.  There is no down time as the new queen gets
started.

Dee, is that correct?

Reply:
I posted earlier on how I do this as when we raise queens I
raise several hundred at a time. But, Kyle needs I think a
reply here as to what is written by him. When I show and
explain to smaller beekeepers in our association that only
need a few queens (less then 50 and often less then 10) I
realize that many cannot for their size operation work with
a chicken incubator.

Consequently, I show them how to simply split colonies and
upon raising of queen cells, place wire, hand made cages
over them and push into the comb. The wire cages are made
out of wire 7-8 mesh hardware cloth and measure about 2 x 3
inches give or take. When the queens are emerged into the
wire cages then workers in the colony can feed the queens
and keep them until all are out.

Then the queens can be taken to the field the same way.
However, since they have been in contact with workers they
are not quite as readily accepted as those raised in the
incubator with no first contact.

So to get around this, many of the members look up the old
queens and remove and then wait for the crying sound of
queenlessness. Then they smoke in the virgins the same way,
by smoking in the front of the colony and then releasing
the virgin up above when the smoke comes out the top of the
colony.

This isn't to say some just don't put in without killing or
removing the old queen first (some do), but the odds are
lesser with fist contact then without a first contact with
workers. Smell I would reckon is important to bees, and
once contact is make the virgins seem marked.

Just figured I'd go over this for Kyle and others. But
nothing really wrong with what Kyle said. I myself just
like highter odds in acceptance and acting better like a
regular supercedure.

Regards,

Dee A. Lusby

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