[Sharkey]

I tell you, I am LOUSY at finding my queens. I got my two Carniolans and was going to install them yesterday. The night before, I decided to brush up on my queen releasing techniqe, and so I broke out my copy of “The Beekeeper’s Handbook” by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile and read on pg. 88 that there should be NO attendants in the cage with the queen when she is released. hmmmmm

Next day, I get things prepared, and I am now faced with getting 4 or 5 attendants out of two cages each. hmmmmmmm

The queen cages had been shipped in a nice little cardboard package with screen panels in the sides, and they slid together to form a box. Very nice. :->

So I got the first cage out and tried to get the little critters to walk out the hole where I had taken the cork out. They were NOT interested in doing that. hmmmmm

So I notice that the screen on the cage is just sort of snapped in place and so I said hmmmmm.

I opened that up a little and lo and behold, somehow managed to get the attendants to leave, with her majesty trailing close behind, but I managed to get the castle door closed first. Then I proceeded to place her cage in the nuc I had made ready (and that’s ANOTHER story that is waaaay too long to type !! GAWD)

So, being bouyed on by the success of my first release of attendants, what’s to stop me from doing the same thing again ?? hmmmmm

AS I got the second screen open, out comes one attendant, two attendants, three, four....
AND Her Majesty !!! :-< I sat there and watched $25.00 fly off into the air. All I could was sit there and look around to make sure no one was watching and shake my head.

However........... hehe.... I noticed that in a minute or two, the attendants were buzzing around and lighting on the queen cage where the queen had been. hmmmmm

I sat thre for about 5 of the longest minutes of my life, and sure enough....... what I al least thought/hoped was her majesty started making circles over where we (the attendants and me) were sitting and waiting. Soon she dropped altitude and buzzed around me a couple of times and buzzed the cage a few times and then hovered right in front of me and took off again. She then repeated this performance and I began to think, how can I nab her with out injuring her or smashing her ?? hmmmmm

Then I remembered the little box that the cages had been shipped in. hmmmmm

I went and got the two halves and sat back down where the great queen escape had taken place, and after the next 5 longest minutes of my life, her majesty once again approached the tower and repeated her ealier flight patterns. Onlt THIS time, when she made the mistake of hovering in front of me at chest level, I simply put the two halves of the box on either side of her (smoothly and quickly) and slid them together with her majesty snuggly inside !!! Ta Da !!!!!

I still had to wait for my son to get home so he could verify that there was a green mark on her, since I am red/green color blind, and when he did, I sure breathed a huge sigh of relief and broke out in a VERY big grin !! :->

Sharkey Pruette
Queen Recovery Team Extroidinare


------------------
It's Not The Destination, It's The Journey. We Cannot Change The Wind, But We CAN Trim The Sails.

 

[NHbees]

Sharkey congratulations on your catch

. A hint ofr next time, release you attendants in the bathroom, that way if the Queen decides to follow she will be enclosed and will head for the window and some light. The catch is much easier, and no matter how much flack you may have from other house mates it's definitely Worth a 25.00 Queen

 

[Louise]

Why do you have to release the attendants first? I've never done it that way - just let them all eat their way out together - or the one time that failed, cut them out together.

 

[Michael Bush]

Try this. Take a cardboard box and cut arm holes in the sides, just big enough to get your hands into the center of the box. Cut a peice of cardboard out of the bottom and duct tape some screen wire on (#8 is nice, but anything smaller will work too). Go in the bathroom (as already explained) in case they get away and open the cork and let the attendants fly out.

I also like to have a hair clip queen catcher, a marking pen and a marking tube, if she isn't marked yet and mark her. Now, to get her back in I have a glass pipe (from www.beeworks.com) that you set the "bowl" end over the queen and the cage on the end of the pipe and when she starts to go up the pipe you pull the whole thing out and blow her into the cage.

 

[Sharkey]

Thank You all. Great ideas. Don't have a CLUE about this queen stuff that Michael was talking about. I can sort of imagine the hairclip, but the glass pipe and the marking tube and all that, I haven't a clue about.

Now.......somebody answer that great question that Louise asked and I want to know too.

WHY do the attendants need to be released at all ??

Thanks again everybody. :->

------------------
It's Not The Destination, It's The Journey. We Cannot Change The Wind, But We CAN Trim The Sails.

 

[dickm]

Apparently the home bees have no compunction about stinging the (to them) alien attendants. They won't sting a queen to death ...they "ball" her. They form a tight cluster and overheat her. They can't do that if she's in a cage. So: leaving the attendants in adds to the hostilities. When I was told this I didn't believe it. I introduced the cages (5 or 6) attendants and all. The queens were released and survived but all the attendants were dead in the cage.
Great tip about the box, Mike. I can envision a box with a lucite or glass top, like something used for sand blasting small parts.

Dickm

Dickm

 

[honeylocust]

The first time I released a queen with her attendants, having read that it was the thing to do. It was a successful release of the queen, I have no idea what happened to her attendants.

The second time there were no attendants with the queen. The cork was askew and no candy blocking the hole. I was worried about her having no attendants. But, again, it was a successful release.

So both ways worked for me. Do you suppose they go easier on the queen when she is alone?

 

[Scot Mc Pherson]

With a package installation or any installation where the queen and attandents have been pacakges together with the bees, then there is no reason to remove the attendants.

When introducing a new queen to an established hive, you can remove the attendents to queen acceptance. Sometimes when the bees get hostile to the attendents the queen can get hurt too.

 

[Michael Bush]

Honestly I usually don't bother to remove the attendants and I hardly every have a problem unless I already anticipated a problem, such as a laying worker or a really hot hive. Then I try to stack the deck and remove the attendants.

>Don't have a CLUE about this queen stuff that Michael was talking about. I can sort of imagine the hair clip, but the glass pipe and the marking tube and all that, I haven't a clue about.
http://www.beeworks.com/uspage3.asp

Look on this page at the following:

Clip Queen Catcher = hair clip queen catcher
Queen Marking Cage = marking tube
Glass Queen Catcher = glass pipe
Queen Marking Pens = marking pen
You can get all but the Glass Queen Catcher at Betterbee as well.
http://www.betterbee.com/departments2.asp?dept=194&top=73&bottom=86&title=BEEKEEPING+TOOLS

Queen Catcher = hair clip queen catcher
Queen Marking Tube = marking tube
Queen Marking Pen = marking Pen

 

[kamerrill]

Use your veil to release the attendants. With them released in the veil it's easy to then catch the queen for marking. If you need to, throw a couple of drones in your veil to practice handling a queen.

good luck...

Kurt