# How to store queens different methods?



## HOBBEEZ APIARY (Jun 30, 2014)

I've been using the search function with not much luck.

What is your favorite or not, methods of storing queens for later use or resale, up to how many days or months?


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

My preferred method is to let them work on populating a NUC for me. I keep them in their mating NUC until needed or till the NUC is ready to be sold whichever is sooner.


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## HOBBEEZ APIARY (Jun 30, 2014)

How many frames do you start out with in your mating NUC and can you have more than one queen in the NUC?


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## My-smokepole (Apr 14, 2008)

A nuc is best. But when I was short of bees frames of eggs and so on. I placed a bunch above a queen excluder. On a couple of stripes of wood. And park a shorter frame above them. For a couple of weeks. I didn't like doing it but it worked.


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## HOBBEEZ APIARY (Jun 30, 2014)

I was lead to believe that you can't have more than one queen in a hive! 
Is this not true? 
Will they not kill each other off until there is only one queen left?
I have about a dozen or so queens(completely black "SASKATRAS" Canadian) i'd like to store for up to a month or so to put in nuc boxes as they become ready and maybe sell some.
Or do they have to be stored in queen cages and get feed through the cage by the other bee's?
If they can be stored more than one at a time that would be so great.
My first year so please forgive my ignorance in bee keeping.
Thanks in advance.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Set up a queenless nuc. Put a frame of queen cages with queens in it. Don't add any more queens until you remove all of those queens.


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## HOBBEEZ APIARY (Jun 30, 2014)

Michael Bush said:


> Set up a queenless nuc. Put a frame of queen cages with queens in it. Don't add any more queens until you remove all of those queens.


Ahh that makes a lot more sense.
Time to buy more cages only have ten. So multiple queens will kill each other no matter what the orientation.

Thanks


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Are these virgin queens? I can't say for sure, but I'm suspecting they will need to be placed in a hive or nuc before three weeks time goes by, if they are virgins. Not positive, but is what I suspect, as virgins I've had that did not mate within three weeks of emerging, never did mate or mate well and had to be replaced if they didn't just disappear on their own. It may be that banking them from emergence would be different than having them emerge in a mating nuc to mate, maybe they'll last longer being banked, I can't say as I've never banked queens myself.


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## HOBBEEZ APIARY (Jun 30, 2014)

RayMarler said:


> Are these virgin queens? I can't say for sure, but I'm suspecting they will need to be placed in a hive or nuc before three weeks time goes by, if they are virgins. Not positive, but is what I suspect, as virgins I've had that did not mate within three weeks of emerging, never did mate or mate well and had to be replaced if they didn't just disappear on their own. It may be that banking them from emergence would be different than having them emerge in a mating nuc to mate, maybe they'll last longer being banked, I can't say as I've never banked queens myself.


I actually totally forgot at the begging of this post that they have an expire date of three weeks to mate and have to go in a matting nuc within that time frame.

it seems like a lot of work to make and store mated queens, i'm wondering if it's worth saving the few weeks it takes for a split to make a queen.

Thanks


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

I made myself a frame to bank queens a couple years ago. I still have not used it to bank mated queens, but may towards the end of summer. I need to keep the last round of queens in the mating nucs to overwinter, but if people need to buy late summer/fall queens it would mean I would need to combine mating nucs if I sell it's queen. I generally stop grafting the end of July. Banking some queens will allow me to place a last batch of cells in the mating nucs, while still haveing _some_ surplus queens for sale or to fill in for any I might need. 

I'll be giving it a try anyway. See how it goes.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>So multiple queens will kill each other no matter what the orientation.

I don't understand this statement. If they are loose and they are virgins, a definite yes. If they are loose and they are laying queens, I'm not so sure a lot of them aren't disposed of by the workers. If they are all in the same state (laying just before you caught them and put them in the bank) and the bank is queenless, they can't and the workers won't.


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## HOBBEEZ APIARY (Jun 30, 2014)

Michael Bush said:


> >So multiple queens will kill each other no matter what the orientation.
> 
> I don't understand this statement. If they are loose and they are virgins, a definite yes.


I meant to say if they are loose.
I did not understand what bank meant and though that people were saying though a bunch of loose queens in to a queenless nuc and your good to go..lol
I,m very new to this and did not realize that they all had to be caged separately, than it made total sense. I did see a pic on here were someone had around 50 queens in a custom made jail frame were the were all separated. 

1-How long will the other bees feed the queens in there cages?

2- What will happen if you add more queens latter on without removing the old ones? Will they just stop feeding the new ones? or...

3-Could I just take a piece of 3/4 lumber the size of the inside of a frame drill about 50 1-1/2"holes all over and than sandwich the wood with queen separators and mount it all in a frame to have 50 or so queen jail cells were the workers can get in an feed them??? I'm going to start building it now anyways just want to here the pros and cons.

4-What is the easiest way to get all the queens mated? Can you just let one queen loose at a time? or do you have to build a matting nuc with 2 frame nuc's all separated in one box?

Sorry about all the questions but I'm sure others will benefit also from the information in this thread, you guys do have very precious info.

Thank You


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## AL from Georgia (Jul 14, 2014)

I hope you will post a picture of your queen jail when you finish it, sounds interesting.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

> 1-How long will the other bees feed the queens in there cages?

Years.

> 2- What will happen if you add more queens latter on without removing the old ones? Will they just stop feeding the new ones? or...

They will kill the old ones and feed the new ones.

> 3-Could I just take a piece of 3/4 lumber the size of the inside of a frame drill about 50 1-1/2"holes all over and than sandwich the wood with queen separators and mount it all in a frame to have 50 or so queen jail cells were the workers can get in an feed them??? 

Sure. Or use JZBZ cages and something like this:
http://www.honeyrunapiaries.com/store/queen-banking-frame-jzbz-p-246.html

It will hold about 150 queens or so...

>4-What is the easiest way to get all the queens mated?

Separate mating nucs for each queen. Cage them AFTER they are mated.

> Can you just let one queen loose at a time?

No.

> or do you have to build a matting nuc with 2 frame nuc's all separated in one box?

If you want 150 queens you need about 200 mating nucs each with a queen cell...


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## HOBBEEZ APIARY (Jun 30, 2014)

Michael Bush said:


> > 1-How long will the other bees feed the queens in there cages?
> 
> Years.
> 
> ...



Holy Crap! thanks for answering all my questions oh wise one.

Lauri thats a nice bank you built there.

Here is mine I put together in a matter of 20min or so if my picture shows up








Anybody know why my picture turned out so small and you have to click on it to get a full size image? 

Lauri, how did you get your pic to show up so large?

Can you tell I'm a newbie! lol


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## HOBBEEZ APIARY (Jun 30, 2014)

Michael Bush said:


> >
> 
> If you want 150 queens you need about 200 mating nucs each with a queen cell...


What would happen if after the queen has mated in the nuc and than you caged it and introduced a new queen in that same nuc? Would it just not be accepted?


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## John Davis (Apr 29, 2014)

Hobbeez looks like you used an excluder on each side of the board. It will be hard to get a queen to stay in each hole while you get the excluder on ???


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## HOBBEEZ APIARY (Jun 30, 2014)

I knew someone was going to ask that
I thought of that before building the unit.
One side of the frame has the excluder is permanently mounted on.
The other side slides on left to right or up and down as I put the queens in I would use a piece of hard paper bristol board and cover up the queens until one row is complete after that I slide the excluder over the paper and start another row.
It would be next to imposable to put the queens in and slide the queen excluder over it.well unless I used carbon dioxide or suger water or vodka and spray them down until they are drunk enough to stay put, but i'll stick to the paper method.


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## John Davis (Apr 29, 2014)

That should do it.


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## HOBBEEZ APIARY (Jun 30, 2014)

Michael Bush said:


> Set up a queenless nuc. Put a frame of queen cages with queens in it. Don't add any more queens until you remove all of those queens.


When you say queenles NUC would that be one frame of brood and one frame of honey/pollen ?

Also could I just wait a week and assume that the queen is mated or wait and look for eggs?

I still want to try a two frame NUC put a queen in it and attempt to introduce another queen using various methods after the first one is removed. Or put the two frames back were they came from and pull a different two frames immediately and start over again.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>What would happen if after the queen has mated in the nuc and than you caged it and introduced a new queen in that same nuc? Would it just not be accepted? 

My guess is they would kill the banked queens, but then my guess was that they would raise their own queen and then kill the banked queens, but despite that fact that they always raise their own queen, I have not had them kill the banked queens under those circumstances.

>When you say queenles NUC would that be one frame of brood and one frame of honey/pollen ?

Typically for a bank I use either a five or eight frame box. You need at least a frame of honey and a frame a brood and a frame of queens (that's three frames).

> Also could I just wait a week and assume that the queen is mated or wait and look for eggs?

It will take about two weeks for a newly emerged queen to start laying.

>I still want to try a two frame NUC put a queen in it and attempt to introduce another queen using various methods after the first one is removed. 

Typically you rotate queen cells in and queens out of mating nucs about every two to three weeks.


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## marshmasterpat (Jun 26, 2013)

I thought I read somewhere that workers would feed the queen through small mesh wire like size 8 hardware cloth or window screen. 

Is this correct?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I thought I read somewhere that workers would feed the queen through small mesh wire like size 8 hardware cloth or window screen. 

or window screen...

>Is this correct? 

If they can reach her they will feed her. They can fit their tongue through window screen... and anything larger. The JZBZ cages are designed to prevent the bees pulling on the queens feet. The queens have pads on their feet that produce pheromones and help them to walk. Sometimes workers will pull at their feet and damage these. So screen isn't the best. #8 is harder for the queen to walk on to get fed. My first choice would be the JZBZ cages. Next best would be window screen. #8 would be my last choice...


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