So I have 3 queens coming. Thanks to some robbing, I don't have enough stuff yet to do the splits I wanted to do. I thought I would start a queen bank, then I could come and get the queens when the bees are ready to split. How long will they stay viable in the queen bank? How long can I leave them in there before I have to worry that they might not start laying?
The one thing that concerns us about banking queens too long, is that the tarsal pads can be damaged by the cage/nipping workers. The damage will lead to a decrease in "footprint" pheromone and that is why banked queens are often superceded.
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