# Storage of Queens?



## AmishNeighbor (May 26, 2013)

I hope this is not a stupid question!
I saw an experienced beekeeper store 200 queens in two boxes for more than a month, feeding liquid, by "finger dropper" each night (and maybe in the AM as well). He may have had reasons for not placing the queens right away, so my question is--What is a "reasonable time period" and a maximum time period, to store new queens before introduction, so I can put this question to bed (in my mind)?

Thanks


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

storing queens is not "ideal", but I have found a few research articles where they were testing how long they can be stored in cages over winter. The queens do need to be mated and allowed to lay eggs for a period of time before they are stored. I had one caged for about 4 weeks last year and she's laying fine.


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## BadBeeKeeper (Jan 24, 2015)

I kept some stored from May to Sept or Oct one year. After I thought I had used them all up I let the box go...when I went to clear it out I found I had forgotten one, still in the cage, dead with just a few [live] bees clinging to the cage. It was kind of sad, actually.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

You can bank them with loose workers if you replace the workers every couple of weeks and they are fed. You can bank them almost indefinitely in a small nuc box that is free flying and queenless but has brood. They eventually raise a queen and I would catch her and remove her. But that tends to keep it full of brood. Don't add queens once it's set up. Use the queens until they are all removed and then add a new batch that was all caught on the same day.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Just for the record...

A week before catching mated queens => Make sure the Mother queen is downstairs. Place a Cloake Board between the brood boxes of a strong colony. Place capped brood in the top, and your queen bank frame(s). Place open brood and empty combs in the bottom with the queen. Leave an opening in the top box facing the original direction. Reverse the opening in the bottom box. Feed both boxes a patty & a jar of thin syrup.

Catching Day => Close the Cloake Board, wait 2 hours. When you catch your mated queens from the mating nuc's, record your laying pattern data, mark the cages, and place the cages in the queen bank frame, above the Cloake Board in the queenless section of the hive. Rotate out hatched frames & replace with capped brood every 4 to 6 days. Feed them.

Myself, I'm starting to move banked queens (my time limit is one week, but I've heard of getting away with as much as 4 weeks in a queen bank) into Laidlaw cages for up to a week in the Queen Bank Hive before transferring them into a Laidlaw cage on a different comb in the target recipient colony for acceptance.


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## rbees (Jun 25, 2012)

My story....a little more than 15 years ago during the unibomber mail delay I ordered queens from some place in California...this was in mid June. During that time mail packages were being scrutinized and there was a delay of the queens in route. They queens have not arrived by the time I took off on a road trip for the entire month of July. Long story short, the queens spent half the month of June..the entire month of July at the post office in their shipping envelope before I finally picked them up. The candy was almost gone and half the workers were dead, but the remaining bees looked ok. I introduced them and they were just fine 

So...my guess is you can bank them for a LONG time


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## AmishNeighbor (May 26, 2013)

Thank you all very much for your replies. Now I feel a little bit more knowledgeable on the subject.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

BTW, larger operations usually keep at least one queen bank colony for most of the year. Need a queen? Just go get her and an introduction cage.


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## Dave1958 (Mar 25, 2013)

When they were stored, I assume they were mated, but had they been laying?


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Virgins are stored as little as possible. The sooner they mate, the better, as far as most of us know. Wait too long, and they are drone-layers.

Mated queens can be stored a bit longer. Best results are still as little as possible, but I've heard of mated queens being stored for a month without complete failure. More lattitude for mated queens than for virgins.

Think virgins = a couple days, mated queens that have layed a good pattern = one or 2 weeks.


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## AmishNeighbor (May 26, 2013)

Thank you all for your valuable input--I now feel better as to what I saw.


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