# How long can a queen stay in her cage?



## rmadean (Jun 20, 2010)

I was wondering how long a queen can survive in her queen cage? My understanding is that the bees care for her through the cage wire just as they would if she were running around the hive. Is this true? Just wondering so I can store yet another nugget of bee wisdom in my rapidly filling brain sponge.
Rian


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## honeybeekeeper (Mar 3, 2010)

What happens if the bees dont like her, do you think they are feeding her through the cage then?? Thats why there is usually a few bees inside the cage with her!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

As an experiment I have banked queens in cages for as long as three months. I'm sure they would survive longer than that... but the bees will be wanting a queen that is laying long before then.


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Probably thinking too much here, but I cannot imagine locking a pregnant anything up for a few months until I am ready. It works but is it good?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I don't recommend it. But I found myself curious that some of the queens I was getting in packages weren't laying for 2 weeks and I thought it was because they were banked. After trying banking them for long periods and then introducing them, I never saw one that didn't start laying within a few days. I do not recommend it, but I also did not see any issues when I tried it. I try to leave them in the mating nucs until I catch them to ship them or at least catch them the weekend before and ship them the following monday or tuesday.


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Thanks Michael, good to know, might be worth banking a few emergency ladies for the Winter.


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## muskratcreekhoney (Mar 30, 2010)

Are queens commonly banked with attendents in the cage? I bought a A.I. queen last year and the attendents had the smallest abdomens I have ever seen. They almost looked as if they were another species.


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## honeybeekeeper (Mar 3, 2010)

I had a package this year that took 2 weeks for the queen to start laying! So i can relate!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Are queens commonly banked with attendents in the cage?

Probably not. You can, but the attendants don't live as long and then you may have to remove the dead ones and add new ones anyway. Easier to just put them in when you're ready.

> I bought a A.I. queen last year and the attendents had the smallest abdomens I have ever seen. They almost looked as if they were another species. 

Young bees are that small. They also make good nurses.


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## muskratcreekhoney (Mar 30, 2010)

Thanks M.B., always a wealth of knowledge at my fingertips.


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

This isn't the best way to do things, but here's what happened to me over the last 
Queens shipped from breeder Monday, April 4. Picked up by me Thursday, April 8. Installed Saturday, April 9. (I removed attendants from the queen cage, put cage in receiving hive.) Made up a nuc for one queen, with some emerging brood. 
April 17, queen in nuc still in her cage, NO BEES in nuc! They had apparently returned to the parent hive...big mistake on my part. The lone queen was still alive and active in her cage, still had some of the candy left. So I installed her in another colony that had gone queenless.

My point is, for several days (maybe most of a week) that queen was without any bees to attend her, either in her cage, or in the nuc. But she survived. We'll see how she lays once freed in the new colony.
Regards,
Steven


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## Lady Devana (Oct 5, 2016)

Hi Michael

I have another question but can't find a question about it anywhere. If you take a queen out of her hive for a short period of time how long can you leave her out of her hive before having to reintroduce her?


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