There’s not much to see here, but here’s the deal: I recently added three mated queens to some of my hives and splits. Here’s a quick video of me checking to see if a queen was released from her cage. The video ends with me looking at some foundationless frames in a honey super.
Here’s a semi-short story about the requeening. Part 1: The candy plug in one of my queen cages was rock solid and the bees hadn’t eaten through it five days later when I checked on it, not even close. Part 2: I’ve been told that the attendant bees should be removed from the queen cage before the cage is installed. Supposedly in the commotion of being introduced, the attendant bees can get over excited and inadvertently sting or harm the queen. I’ve also been told not to worry about the attendant bees and just leave them in the cage with the queen. So that’s what I did and everything turned out fine.
…planning to set up a couple hives of our next spring. Came across your site a couple weeks ago and look forward to dropping in as often as I can. The experience will be a bit different here in Ontario’s far south but I appreciate the “pioneer” spirit of Mud Songs. Much success and happy anniversary.
Careful with the water on the candy plug. It can get stuck to the queen’s wings, and then it hardens again. Then it’s very hard for the workers to remove.
That happens, does it? Oh well, I guess I won’t do that then. Thanks for the feedback.