introducing Virgin queens

[Jack]

Peter,
Could you please describe the details of your method for introducing
virgin queens. I am intrigued and would like to try it. Thanks
Jack Rath
West Pawlet, VT

[Peter Loring Borst]

>     Could you please describe the details of your method for introducing virgin queens.  I am intrigued and would like to try it.  Thanks
> Jack Rath
> West Pawlet, VT

I am sorry I have gotten to this yet. It is a bit complicated to
describe while simple enough to perform. I will try to work something
up

Pete

[Peter Loring Borst]

Before I worked at the Dyce Lab I thought that introducing virgins was
problematical and to be avoided. However, I learned that this is not
correct. What we did was to raise queens in the usual way, with a
standard cell builder. We did use wood cell holders, but this is not
crucial by any means.

Professor Calderone likes to move the cells into an incubator as soon
as they’re sealed. Myself, I prefer to incubate on the last two days
only. The cells are allowed to emerge in a little bottle or cage. They
have to be watched carefully because the queens sometimes crawl back
into the cells and get trapped.

As soon as they were all emerged, we took them out one at a time and
marked them. This is a very good idea, but of course, not essential.
Why is it good? Because when you go to check to see if the queen is
mated and laying, you will know that it is yours and not some rogue
queen the bees cooked up on their own.

The virgins should be introduced in a good introducing cage. We had
plastic tubes that could be loaded with a big wad of queen cage candy.
You want the queen confined for a couple of days. A strong hive will
eat through the candy pretty fast, but it would be a mistake to
introduce a valuable queen into a strong hive anyway.

Introduce her to a 2 – 4 frame nuc. This many bees is a lot easier to
manage than a larger number. Once the queen is mated and laying
properly, you can combine the nuc onto a poor colony, or allow it to
build up on its own.

[rath...@gmail.com]

On Feb 14, 12:49 pm, Peter Loring Borst <peterloringbo...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> The virgins should be introduced in a good introducing cage. We had
> plastic tubes that could be loaded with a big wad of queen cage candy.

Peter,
Thanks for the info. Any specifics on the type of intro cage.
Were the tubes you mention added to a standard 3 hole wooden cage. It
seems push in cages would not be great for virgins because she can't
lay until she is mated and I am not familiar with push ins w candy
section for release. I do have Snelgrove's book on introduction if
the cage is mentioned in it. Thanks.
Jack

[Peter Loring Borst]

We always used cages we made out of heavy hardware cloth. They were
about six inch by 3/4 inch tubes. One end would have a cork and the
other the candy. For long term holding of queens you could cork both
ends and cover the cork with duct tape so they don't gnaw it.

However, at some point we acquired a huge case of plastic cages. I
don't know where they came from but they looked like plastic hair
curlers. These were great. I like a tube type cage that you can place
between the frames horizontally. WHen you lift the lid you can see at
a glance how she's doing