Queen OOPS!

[psisk]

I suited up this afternoon and made up a five frame nuc. I closed the entrance off and moved the hive to a new spot. I waited about twenty minutes and then attempted to put in a queen. I had removed my suit and gloves as it was 101 this afternoon and miserable in the jacket and viel. As I was putting the queen between the frames I dropped her to the screen bottom. As I didnt have on gloves or a viel and the bees werent happy I just left her there. Will this cause a problem? Should I go back in tomorrow and put her back at the top of the frames?

Thanks
Paul Sisk

[sfisher]

I'm sure she wont still be on the screen bottom board tomorrow.

[robherc]

did you drop the queen on the SBB, or the queen CAGE on the sbb?

[psisk]

I dropped the queen cage on to the screen bottom. I guess I should have worded that better. I went back in the next day and there was a ball around her so I just left her on the bottom.

psisk

[psisk]

I will answer my own question now. I went in today and pulled the queen cage out. Not only was she not released, they hadnt even touched the candy plus a dead attendant was blocking the candy from the inside. They had been taking care of her but otherwise paid no attention to her being caged.

psisk

[mrobinson]

What I did was to remove the non-candy plug (sorely wishing that I had a small pin with which to do it), put my finger over the hole, and simply set the cage on the bottom of the hive, positioning it so that the entrance of course was not blocked. As I closed up, I observed that the bees had surrounded her and were attending to her as she emerged.

Although "all those bees" can of course be disconcerting, there really shouldn't be a problem in simply reaching down in there, gently picking up the cage and doing whatever you need to do with it, even if initially you dropped it. I also find no particular advantage, and sometimes dis-advantages, in "hanging" the cage because the empty cage gets in the way of things (and quickly gets surrounded by burr comb).