[Michael Palmer]

I like to release the attendants before installing the queen cage in the nuc. I can get them out of the cages about as fast as my help can put them in the hives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYpcYd1m14

 

[squarepeg]

brilliant. i have been removing the attendants with a forceps and it is a pain, had no idea just blowing would get them out. thanks michael.

 

[Fishman43]

Shoot, I asked a question about this in the cell builder thread. Why do you remove the attendants?

 

[deknow]

Mike, you should add some specifics of why you are doing this in your truck with the windows rolled up.

I filmed you doing this several years ago (the video has made the rounds online). Soon after I was showing a friend how to do this, and of course I was showing off and did it outside on the porch.....by by queen. I hope the neighbors got a kick out of watching the two of us chase a queen around the yard...he had sharper eyes than me and found her on a nearby rose bush.

deknow

 

[jim lyon]

I made the mistake of doing it outside myself once. Sure enough, one got away. I left the cage and the other queens where they were and a while later she was back, sitting on the cage.

 

[jim lyon]

Shoot, I asked a question about this in the cell builder thread. Why do you remove the attendants?

If you are going to "bank them" they survive much better with no attendants.

 

[Kamon Reynolds]

Thanks for the video Michael

 

[odfrank]

I had one disappear under the truck seat 30 years ago and she is still there. Of course, queens only cost about $6 each back then. You can tell Michael has handled a queen or two.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Mike, you should add some specifics of why you are doing this in your truck with the windows rolled up.

But the windows aren't rolled up Dean. We're shooting. Yeah, windows up if you're a fumble fingers.

 

[Michael Palmer]

I had one disappear under the truck seat 30 years ago and she is still there. Of course, queens only cost about $6 each back then. You can tell Michael has handled a queen or two.

Frank and I have something in common. There are a couple under my front seat too. But queens are cheaper now...Free! I raise my own.

 

[Fishman43]

If you are going to "bank them" they survive much better with no attendants.

Thank you Jim, I didn't pick up on the fact that these were headed for the bank.

 

[Michael Palmer]

They aren't headed for a bank. I don't bank queens. Don't need to...We catch queens every 4 days. These were caught on a Monday, and in a nuc on Wednesday.

 

[jim lyon]

Actually Mike feels they introduce better into nucs as well without attendants. I can accept that as well. Caged attendants dont have much longevity. To me the only purpose of attendants in a cage is transporting small numbers of queens where it isnt feasible to use a "battery box" with free roaming attendants.