caged queens

[2kooldad]

never having to detain a queen without a hive to put her in...how long will she last in that cage...the bees seem to be feeding them through the cages...i put the queens on top of my freshly queend nuc hive...was that a mistake...will that affect the way the bees accept her...even tho she is with the bees from the hive i took her from...they all are from that hive ???

[Michael Bush]

If you give them a drop of water a day and they have candy and the attendants are still alive, they will last about a week or two.  Then you need to replace the attendants.  Then they will last another couple of weeks.  Another option is put the cages in a box with some air slits and shake in a few bees and put some candy in and give them a few drops of water a day.  If you replace the workers every couple of weeks you can do this indefinitely.

[2kooldad]

thanks...thats exactly what i wanted to know...maybe i can keep them alive long enuff to replace any queens that dont make it.

[Beesville]

  Just Bank them in a nuc :roll: Get 2 frames of brood one with eggs and Young brood and the other one with older hatching brood add a frame of honey and pollen. shake in plenty of workers. Do this early in the morning leave the nook facing backwords from the parint hive all day. Then go back and check it in the evening and make sure you did not get the queen. This will give the older workers time to leave and go home. Add a frame of foundion to give them something to work on.Young bees will except any queen. Place all your queen cages in beetween the frames of brood. I use a modified frame to hold the queen cage's in place. but for just a few you don,t need the frame. You can keep them this way for weeks. I have kept them this way for 3 weeks. I don't recommend keeping them much longer than that.Make sure your corks are all in place. Good luck

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