Queen Banking

[marcros]

Good Morning All!

Could anybody tell me more about queen banking, what equipment they can recommend and for how long queens can be banked for?

Also, do BZ EZ have a website of all their products?

Thanks
Mark

[Michael Bush]

I like the JZBZ cages and the plastic racks that Mann Lake sells to put them in. You can build (or I bought mine from someone on here) a frame to put them in. I like to set it up the day before putting the queens in. A couple of frames of brood and a couple of frames of honey each from different hives (for the confusion factor) and shake in about four more frames of brood (from different hives if possible). Then try to catch and back them all on the same day or two days. Once they've accepted those queens, it's risky to add more later. Better to set up another bank. I'm not recommending banking them for long periods of time, but I have, as an experiment, banked them for a couple of months and they started laying fine and withing a couple of days when put back in a hive. I think a lot of the problems people have with banked queens isn't so much because of the banking as it is because of the cages allowing their feet to get injured (screen cages instead of the JZBZ) and banking them before they actually are laying well. They should be allowed to lay for a couple of weeks first.

[peggjam]

He used to have a website set up with hometown at aol, it appears that hometown has shut down, and he hasn't set another one up..:(.

[marcros]

Thank you.

Michael

Although you have said thay you tried banking for a couple of months as an experiment, typically how long do you bank queens for? would it be better to raise smaller batches more regularly than a large batch with a view to holding them longer?

Thanks again, this forum is very interesting
Kind regards
Mark

[Michael Palmer]

You can bank queens for a couple weeks using an excluder. Place the excluder on top of a strong cluster....cluster must be at the top of the hive. I use an old Root 7 wire excluder, because it has wooden slats to lay the cages on. Otherwise you can use thin slats cut on the table saw...keeps the cage screens up off the excluder. Place the screen facing down, so the bees can feed the queens. Place a wool or felt cloth, same size as the excluder, over the cages, followed by an empty super, and the covers.

I've kept them a month this way, but it's best for short term banking.

[Tom G. Laury]

Be sure to feed fumagillin syrup before and during otherwise you can infect all your new queens with nosema

[Michael Bush]

>Although you have said thay you tried banking for a couple of months as an experiment, typically how long do you bank queens for?

I try not to bank them at all. I try to go catch them from the mating nucs and ship them, but sometimes I end up banking them for a week or two. Usually I'm trying to fill orders so they don't set around long.

> would it be better to raise smaller batches more regularly than a large batch with a view to holding them longer?

As I said, they seem to keep fine if they are in cages where they don't get their feet harmed (JZBZ). So do what works for your schedule.