# Pulling bees/queens for short-term observation?



## IAmTheWaterbug (Jun 4, 2014)

For those of you who take your queens and bees on educational field trips in a 1- or 2-frame OH, how long do you take them out for, and how do the "home" bees react?

How long can you leave them out before the home bees start raising a new queen?

Do you have to do anything special to reintroduce them at the end of the trip?


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## Agis Apiaries (Jul 22, 2014)

We have a five frame nuc sized OH for school visits. We don't have them out for more than about four hours and haven't had a problem. Nothing special for reintroduction.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

I always try to get them back asap, but it's rarely more than 36 hours - I just put them back without any special action or treatment. If it was more than 2 days I would probably check for cells - and there would probably be some started, but I suspect they would be torn down when you returned the laying queen and her retinue even if you didn't do it yourself. I would probably do it anyway though.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

About 3 times a year I take my display hive to weekend shows. My preference is to take the queen (always marked) from a small nuc and some of her bars for the display hive. I like to leave a QMP lure in the hive (fake queen lure) so that the bees don't know they are queenless. I can keep them up to 3 days in the display hive as long as its not too hot or too cold without a cleansing flight. (I do put a little bit of water in there so they can cool the hive and dilute the honey for feeding). Reintroduction is not usually a problem, but then I normally use a spray bottle filled with water and anise oil whenever I am in the hives, so they both get spritzed lightly before going back in the hive and that might do something to cover up the pheromone scents until everyone is one big happy family.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Usually somewhere between a day and a half day. I never noticed any issues.


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