Release my queen

[tycrnp]

When I got my queen today she was alone.  When I have ordered queens previously they had attendants with her.  (Of course, I got her locally instead of through the mail.)  Is that normal?  Does she need to be released sooner?

[BeeMaster2]

TY,
The important question is are the bees ready to accept her? How long were the bees queenless? What type of bees are they? How do they react to her.
Open the hive tomorrow and use a skewer stick or a tooth pick and slide it across the cage. If you can easily slide it and the bees get out of the way, remove the cork and let her out. As soon as the cork is out place it hole side down between 2 frames so that she will crawl right into the hive. You could put the cage back in the hive but you would have to open it up again to remove the cage and I prefer not to bother her and to give a couple of weeks to get established.
Jim

[GSF]

Jim, I thought a queen be had to have attendants to feed her, otherwise she'd starve in about 24 hours. A couple of years back I put a queen in a cage by herself. The next morning she was dead. That's when someone told me about the queen and attendants.

[BeeMaster2]

Usually the nurse bees will start feeding her as they get used to her. If there was a queen or queen cells in the hive, they may totally reject her. The assistants will feed her to their own death even if they cannot get food for themselves.
Jim

[tycrnp]

I released her and everyone seemed happy. Fingers crossed that stay that way!

[BeeMaster2]

Congratulations.