[devdog108]

I went and picked up my Russians last night. Beautiful bees for sure. I just got back from hiving them. The guy I bought them from gave me a queen in a cage with 5 workers. Said he had checked them yesterday and couldn't find the queen, so just in case he brought me this one. I got them hived and put the queen and the cage in. I went and checked my other hives and decided, huh, lets take a look at the queen cage. So far, the bees have killed 3 of the 5 workers in the cage. They were biting and pulling that screen like I have never seen before. There is only one worker left in the cage that is alive.

Has anyone ever seen them kill attendants through the queen cage? I double checked the hive again and made dang sure there was not another queen present. I have never witnessed somoething like that before. You couldn't budge the bees on that cage at all. What are the chances they could kill her through that cage if they got ahold of her attendants? I am a little worried about her.....If they kill the last worker, there won't be a single bee to attend to her. I am hoping they are better this evening, thats for sure!!! She is a new queen....

Dev

 

[BeeCurious]

See this:http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=239699

Were all of you queens separate from the packages?

 

[devdog108]

No, these were 5 frame Nucs. The other Nuc is fine and has a laying queen, but he brought an extra queen in case on the 2nd one, and lucky for me he did. I didn't pull the cork on Purpose. I'll check them this evening to see if everything has calmed down. Funny thing was that some bees had their toungues through the cages and most were biting the heck outta it. I have now witnessed a bee trying to sting THROUGH a cage..... And thanks for the link. That was a good one.

 

[BeeCurious]

I bought a queen-muff from Brushy Mt to use while removing the attendants.

Some people do it sitting in their car/truck...

For me the queens came out sooner than the others. Breathe on the cage and the bees will get riled up and come out.

When the cage is empty, position it in front of the queen and she will walk right in. That's the easy part. Just take it slow and avoid injuring the queen. I bet you could use a one gallon jar or water pitcher upside down in your car to limit the queens travel.

My first time went very well.

If you had some cheesecloth and tape you could rig something with a cardboard box and rubber bands.

Tongues sticking out should be a good sign as I understand.

 

[devdog108]

Wanted to update. Last night when i checked on the queen in the cage, she had a stinger in her face....literally. I brought her down to the house and into the powder room, where i opened the screen and she kinda crawled out. I took a pair of tweezers and removed the stinger. She seemed glad it was gone...LOL. I added another layer of screen over the cage to make it harder. Just came back from the yard, and they have killed her....in the cage.

Here is the question. The Nuc came queenless as the seller said it was. What is his responsability now? Should he provide me another queen? He is a very nice guy, and very honest, so I have just asked him what our next step needs to be, BUT, i did pay for a nuc with a laying queen....and did nothing wrong. They killed her and all of her attendant INSIDE the cages protection.... They could make their own, but this queen was more of a breeder than anything else. The other is a Hybrid...WWYD?