# How Long Will Virgin Queens Last in Incubator?



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I always put a small amount of crystallized honey in the bottom of the hair curler for the queen to eat. With this she may last a day or two. Without this and no workers to feed here, I would not count on her lasting very long.


----------



## muskratcreekhoney (Mar 30, 2010)

Hi, I was planning on producing a few virgins, what grafting cell do you use for the hair roller cages?


----------



## jeff123fish (Jul 3, 2007)

If i may tweek the question a bit how long can a virgin queen be in a roller cage and still be viable to a colony?


----------



## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

It sounds like those "green bags" for fresh vegetables. If I wanted month old "fresh vegetables" why!?!? Why not bank them in a queenless super?


----------



## Yuleluder (Mar 2, 2005)

Of the 16 cells 10 had emerged and were moving around well. Three other queens had emerged but were dead. They appeared to have starved after eating all the excess royal jelly. Three had yet to emerge. I broke down three hives into 12 nucs and added the virgins and two laying queens.


----------



## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Next time, whenever you need some quick feed for bees, use honey. Just spread some on the cage wire of your queens or virgins, or if needed for quick feed in a nuc or hive, I use a 1 pound squeezer and squeeze out thick rows of honey across the top bars. If you don't have any squeezer bottles, then I would recommend getting one or two just for this reason, and to keep one full of honey in your beeking toolbox. It's great for emergency 'need to feed now' kind of situations.


----------



## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

Yuleluder said:


> Three other queens had emerged but were dead. They appeared to have starved after eating all the excess royal jelly.


how big was the cell starter/finisher colony(s)? the most important thing you have control over in queen rearing is making sure there is plenty of food for the queens...which means more nurse bees than you think you need.

deknow


----------



## muskratcreekhoney (Mar 30, 2010)

According to Larry Connor, if an emerged queen isn't fed she will start to die in about 2 hours.


----------



## Yuleluder (Mar 2, 2005)

deknow said:


> how big was the cell starter/finisher colony(s)? the most important thing you have control over in queen rearing is making sure there is plenty of food for the queens...which means more nurse bees than you think you need.
> 
> deknow


So do you keep nurse bees in your incubator? I ran out of time and needed to do something with the cells so I put jzbz cages over the cells threw them in the incubator and headed to my house an hour and a half away. I guess I should have dumped a bunch of bees into the incubator along with some honey and all probably would have been well. 

How many people who use incubators place nurse bees into them?


----------



## Yuleluder (Mar 2, 2005)

muskratcreekhoney said:


> According to Larry Connor, if an emerged queen isn't fed she will start to die in about 2 hours.


This is definately what I saw. Two queens had emerged from their cells the night before when I checked if any queens had emerged from their cells. When I came back the next day those two queens were dead.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

2 hours sounds about right with no food in the cage. With food in the cage I'd give them eight hours or so and then they are probably hurting. They need to be fed and probably need to be fed something better than just honey. Watching the observation hive in the living room, I've watched a queen emerge, and seen workers open up a capped drone cell for her and the queen ate all the food out of the drone cell. Obviously this is higher in protien than just honey. The newly emerged queen has a voracious appetite. I assume for good reason.


----------



## muskratcreekhoney (Mar 30, 2010)

muskratcreekhoney said:


> According to Larry Connor, if an emerged queen isn't fed she will start to die in about 2 hours.


Just wanted to correct my previous post, in *Queen Rearing Essentials *by Larry Connor ,which I highly recommend, he states " Virgin queens, when they emerge in a cage, must be fed by worker bees within an hour or so or will start to die." I would also suggest one of Larry's queen rearing classes if you get the chance.


----------



## beekuk (Dec 31, 2008)

*Virgin queens, when they emerge in a cage, must be fed by worker bees within an hour or so or will start to die*

No they don't,virgins can feed themselves no problem,i use an incubator for all my queen cells,but remove them from the incubator soon after emerging to a warm place with some food,but not as warm as the incubator,cover cages with a moist cloth,they do just fine until the evening when i run them into mating nuc's.
I cage them in rows on pollen clogged brood combs,stir up some pollen in the comb with a little dilute honey in a syrynge into the cells.


----------



## apism (Jul 4, 2010)

ok did I miss it or was this question not answered
How long will they last if feed and watered?
1 day? 2 days? 3 days? or hours?
temp in the incubator is 96 degrees
fed twice a day and watered 3 times a day
(I try to move them out after 12 hrs)
success rate from cell out of the incubator over 96%
thanks
steveb


----------



## Tara (Jun 17, 2010)

Michael Bush said:


> Watching the observation hive in the living room, I've watched a queen emerge, and seen workers open up a capped drone cell for her and the queen ate all the food out of the drone cell. Obviously this is higher in protien than just honey.


Michael,

By "all the food" in the drone cell, do you mean the drone itself?? Or any extra bee bread that happens to be sitting around? I didn't know bees deliberately cannabalized the larva--I thought that was mostly in desperate low-feed situations.

Thanks!


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>By "all the food" in the drone cell, do you mean the drone itself??

Not that I could tell.

> Or any extra bee bread that happens to be sitting around?

Not bee bread, as that is stored pollen, but the "milk" around the drone.

> I didn't know bees deliberately cannabalized the larva--I thought that was mostly in desperate low-feed situations.

I don't know what they were intending in the long run, but they seem to be doing it to feed the queen.


----------

