> How are they (cells) packed? how is their temperature maintained? At > what stage of the cells development would be best for a quick delivery > so they do not emerge before installation? Here in Australia it is common to ship queen cells. We do it. The method we use is a 6 pack esky (a foam container that holds 6 stubbies of beer) filled with sawdust. We heat the sawdust in an incubator to 35 - 36 centigrade. We pack the cells in, sometimes two rows if needed. We can fit just over 100 in a single layer and 200 in a double layer. You put a layer of the sawdust down first, put in a row of cells and fill with the remaining sawdust. The cells are 15 days old, which means they hatch the next day. If you ship any younger you risk damage to the wings. When we pack the cells in the esky, we put it back in the incubator until it has to go or be collected. Some beekeepers collect them and we ship by bus to other beekeepers. We have shipped them up to 1800 kilometres by bus and further by air. Or course air only takes a couple of hours. One thing by air make sure they go in the pressurised cargo hold. If not they freeze. We do not do anything to maintain temperature as our temperatures are not cold compared to some countries. Today we are expecting 34 centigrade and we have had that for several days now. Further south it will be in the low forties With queen cells, heat is a larger enemy than cold. We use the same method of eskies and sawdust for our own cells when we are catching. When we have had excess cells, I have left them out of the incubator in the grafting shed and they do hatch the next day. Most beekeepers use the cells to put into nucs and do not use them to try to re-queen hives. We have found that if the hive is too strong it will destroy the queen cell unless you use some form of cell protection and then there is no guarantee they will not try to destroy it. Trevor Weatherhead AUSTRALIA :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::