They will get her out faster with a hole in the candy, but there are times you won't want to have her out so fast. It's one thing to get a package of bees who have been in contact with the queen for a least a day or two before you get them, possibly as long a 4 or 5 days, and introducing a queen to a foreign set of bees.
Since the bees are already accustomed to the queen in a package, letting her out quickly gets her to work laying faster. A queen in a cage introduced to a split or queenless hive is going to need a couple days where they can't get to her in order for them to accept her (if they do at all), and it's a good idea sometimes to not even pull the cork for a couple days, let alone speed them up as they will simply kill her faster if you let them in faster.
Some people, if the bees seem to accept the queen well, simple pry the screen off the cage and let the queen out when they hive the package. Only real risk there, provided they actually have accepted her, is that she may fly away on you and not return.
If the bees act aggressively toward the queen, I would certainly not puncture the candy, and would leave the cork in for a couple days, too, and recheck. Sometimes there is a virgin queen in a package, and the bees will ALWAYS kill an introduced queen, no matter how long you leave her in the cage with them.
Peter
Since the bees are already accustomed to the queen in a package, letting her out quickly gets her to work laying faster. A queen in a cage introduced to a split or queenless hive is going to need a couple days where they can't get to her in order for them to accept her (if they do at all), and it's a good idea sometimes to not even pull the cork for a couple days, let alone speed them up as they will simply kill her faster if you let them in faster.
Some people, if the bees seem to accept the queen well, simple pry the screen off the cage and let the queen out when they hive the package. Only real risk there, provided they actually have accepted her, is that she may fly away on you and not return.
If the bees act aggressively toward the queen, I would certainly not puncture the candy, and would leave the cork in for a couple days, too, and recheck. Sometimes there is a virgin queen in a package, and the bees will ALWAYS kill an introduced queen, no matter how long you leave her in the cage with them.
Peter
