[larrythebeek]

I've been reading a lot of books in preparation for my pickup of two packages in a few weeks. The newest book I have is "The Backyard Beekeeper" by Kim Flottum, copyrighted 2010 which I assume is an updated version. Aside from the very small print, this seems to be a good book for beginners (like me).

Around page 90 or so, the author mentions a 50% likelihood that your queen will either not be accepted, die or be infertile. The reason given is miticides and chemical fallout affecting the queen and drones she is mated with. The author also says to wait 5 days or more before pulling the 'cork' covering the candy entrance to the queens cage... in order to study the bees reaction to her. Only after the bees seem to accept the new queen, you can remove the cork and allow her to escape in another 3 days.

My questions for the forum are, is there really a half/half likelihood of failure of the package queen, and should I wait 5 days or more before removing the plug?

Larry

 

[larrythebeek]

Thanks for the replies and the advice... I feel more comfortable letting the bees work through the candy in 3 days, rather than waiting 8 or more. Again, this was on pages 90-92, and was in the section about installing package bees, not re-queening.

This is the newest book I own, dated 2010 and came with the Brushy Mountain beginners kit. They were out of stock in December, and shipped it months later (they were probably waiting for the new version to release).

Larry