# Number of days in queen cage?



## LLRED210 (Jun 25, 2015)

I've searched this site several times and everywhere else too (google, YouTube, etc.) and I know the adage of ask 10 beekeepers and you will get 12 different answers. But I hope someone can offer some help to this question: How many days can a mated queen stay in a queen cage?? - providing her attendants are alive and she is being fed.

This year is my 3rd summer as a Beekeeper, and I think I have a good handle on things, I've come out of winter with all of my colonies alive and well. I try to keep expanding my apiary thru splits and I usually buy a few packages also. My problem is keeping the queens in the hives. Last year I had several colonies abscond leaving only partially drawn frames. I always make sure they have sugar suryp, and something to eat like a pollen patty but I am beginning to think the queens are getting out too soon.

I've heard that the cork on the queen cage should be removed when closing up the new package and to check back in 2-3 days to release the queen if there is still candy - but when I go to check the queen, she is gone, many times taking all the bees with her. I've also heard that I should leave the cork in the candy end and leave the queen in the cage for 7-10 days and then release her. So how many days should I wait until releasing a queen? I'm afraid that she will burst with unlaid eggs if I leave her in the queen case too long. 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!


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## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

Do you have a frame of brood that you could give the package? This would severe you well as an anchor to keep the bees in the hive where you placed them. Second best is some drawn comb for the queen to start laying in before the package gets any drawn.


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

the sooner you can get the cage in a hive the better. i have had a couple of extras sit on the table 10 days due to too busy and bad rain, they were in the cage at least a week before i got them. they took to their new nuc. this long is not recomended. a drop of honey once a day and about 1 or 2 drops of water twice a day day is needed, keep them out of daylight. if the attendents start to die you are out of time, one dead attendant is no big deal. the queens are tougher than the workers... if the cages are banked they may last a long time.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Many people feel the foreign attendants in with the queen do not help acceptance. The queen can feed herself at the level needed when she is not laying. Hive bees should start feeding her through the cage screen anyways. 

I would leave the cover over the candy for three days if it was a pricey queen. Sometimes when received, the queen cage candy is almost gone. Again if it is a pricey queen I would check the candy level if you are depending on that to create the delay of release. I had one experience where the queen was out within 2 hours. She was accepted but that was good luck, not good management.


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## Slow Drone (Apr 19, 2014)

Are you running screened bottom boards without the debris tray? If you are closing them up will probably solve your absconding problem. Have never known a queen released too soon causing absconding.


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## LLRED210 (Jun 25, 2015)

Slow Drone said:


> Are you running screened bottom boards without the debris tray? If you are closing them up will probably solve your absconding problem. Have never known a queen released too soon causing absconding.


It was a new package with the queen included. I had nothing but new foundation frames in a 8 frame medium to put the packages into and release the queen a few days later.


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## LLRED210 (Jun 25, 2015)

From the nice folks that responded, I think I did not explain very well about the queens.

The question is this: I have either new queens to go into splits, or a package with its queen. But in every case - I have the queen caged inside the hive with her cage tacked to a center frame. So the queens are in the hives - but how long to leave the caged queen in the cage. Some folks say 3 days if the rest of the hive is not trying to bite or kill her. I've heard other beekeepers say it's ok to leave them in the hive in the cage up to ten days since there is no drawn foundation to lay eggs in anyway. 

All of my hardware is 8 frame. But I've bought some jester bee waxed cardboard nucs with the insert appropriate for medium frames. This year I plan on starting the new colonies in a tighter space hoping that will get the frame foundation drawn faster and hopefully the bee will stick around.

Thanks folks!


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Have you read this: http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?311486-Successful-Queen-Introduction-tips


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## Slow Drone (Apr 19, 2014)

LLRED210 said:


> It was a new package with the queen included. I had nothing but new foundation frames in a 8 frame medium to put the packages into and release the queen a few days later.


So what type of bottom board are you using?


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## Richard Cryberg (May 24, 2013)

There is a sticky on this forum on queen introduction. Why not read it? The short answer is put the queen cage in and put the top on and do not open the top for ten days and feed if they do not have drawn comb with a bunch of stores. Giving a frame of brood right at the start is a major help in getting things going and avoiding supersedure in two or three weeks.

Bees very seldom abscond for no reason unless they are Africanized so you need to figure out why that happened or it is likely to happen again.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>How many days can a mated queen stay in a queen cage?? - providing her attendants are alive and she is being fed.

Provided you keep replacing the attendants, indefinitely, or three years, or until she gets too cold, or she gets overheated whichever comes first...


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

LLRED210 - I am of the opinion that package bees are different than other colonies. They are not a natural thing. I would give them every chance to succeed, but expect that the timing will likely miss the main flow, except in a very good year, or if you bought them some place that has a much earlier Spring than you do. In any case, i'd have a second queen waiting fora package colony. Personally, I've quit using packages. Overwintered nuc's are a far better deal. They build up right away, and seem to make it even in drought years.

It is largely in *HOW* you keep your queens in cages. Professor Harry H. Laidlaw wrote a book titled Contemporary Queen Rearing, in which he shows and discusses several queen introduction cages. Check out that chapter, even read the whole book if you are curious.

As you know, queen holding in a queen bank is different for virgin queens than it is for matted queens. Virgins should be banked only from emergence for 4 days, and let them mate or inseminate them. Mated queens that have been laying eggs may be banked for quite some time, as Michael Bush suggests, but the conditions have to be near ideal. Keep replacing the hatching brood, and make sure there is pollen, honey, and open brood near by the queen bank frame, and keep the number of queens manageable by the colony. 

Read Dr. Susan Cobey's website, www.honeybeeinsemination.com/resources

the article is titled A versatile queen rearing and banking system - Part II - conclusion: Use of the Cloake Board for banking purposes.


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## LLRED210 (Jun 25, 2015)

AstroBee said:


> Have you read this: http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?311486-Successful-Queen-Introduction-tips


No I have not. I will check it out. Thanks!


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## LLRED210 (Jun 25, 2015)

Slow Drone said:


> So what type of bottom board are you using?


I do use screened bottom boards. And FYI in the high summer I use a top screen that also raises the lid a bit for ventilation since it can get so hot in Piedmont of NC. Thanks!


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## LLRED210 (Jun 25, 2015)

kilocharlie said:


> LLRED210 - I am of the opinion that package bees are different than other colonies. They are not a natural thing. I would give them every chance to succeed, but expect that the timing will likely miss the main flow, except in a very good year, or if you bought them some place that has a much earlier Spring than you do. In any case, i'd have a second queen waiting fora package colony. Personally, I've quit using packages. Overwintered nuc's are a far better deal. They build up right away, and seem to make it even in drought years.
> 
> It is largely in *HOW* you keep your queens in cages. Professor Harry H. Laidlaw wrote a book titled Contemporary Queen Rearing, in which he shows and discusses several queen introduction cages. Check out that chapter, even read the whole book if you are curious.
> 
> ...


This season I plan on keeping some extra resources around. I have purchased some extra hardware to keep 3 nucs running permanently. Thanks for the help!


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## LLRED210 (Jun 25, 2015)

Thank you everyone for the advice and suggested readings. I plan on having 7 new colonies this spring and will apply my learnings such that I hope they can all make it going into the fall. Good Luck to everyone this season!!


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