Q------FOR DEE

[droneman]

you say to put virgin queen in nuk and smoke hive wont bees atack her or do i need to keep her in push in cage

[Dee A. Lusby]

Droneman wrote:
you say to put virgin queen in nuk and smoke hive wont bees atack her or do i need to keep her in push in cage

Reply:
Nuc/nuk should be queenless at least half a day to 24 hours first so the bees know that they are queenless and need a queen.

When we (husband and I)put in virgins, Ed smokes in the entrance and I remove the top cover a few inches to one side leaving an opening of about 3-4 inches. When I see the smoke coming out the top from the entrance smoking, I then release the virgin into the top of the nuc/nuk. We normally get acceptance rate of about 85-90% that way which is considered pretty good.It is also best to do at dusk if possible but not mandatory if you have a whole lot to do.

Where we are drastically changing the stock over, I try to have the virgins released into little bottles in an incubator. From there I screen and take to the field. With the bottle I get no scent from hive upon emergence from workers, etc to queer the transfer to a nuc/nuk (but normally do this many times without prior removal of old queens). With nuc queenless the virgins normally go right in and are accepted whether born in bottles or wire cages pushed in around the cells on a frame in a colony.

If from a wire care just take the virgin and no workers and directly smoke and release into a queenless nuc/nuk.For a carry cage you can use a queen cage of either wood or plastic or a small bottle also. Either of them will work for transport. Just keep her warm and get in within an hour or you will have to feed her.

Regards,

Dee

[droneman]

thanks dee for the reply