Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
This is what you might see when the workers are still aggressive toward the queen. They
cling tightly to the cage, biting the wires and are difficult to push away because they
are trying to get at the new queen.
If you leave your feeder on and the bees come up to feed, they may construct comb that
surrounds the feeder and is attached to the sides of the box. It must be cleaned up.
Remove the cover and inner cover, smoke the bees, remove the feeder, and remove
the beeswax. Save the wax (it makes good candles, lotions, or wax for coating plastic
foundation). Clean it all out, remove and fill the feeder, and replace the box and cov-
er—and don't leave it alone for so long again.
After five days, open the colony carefully, using as little smoke as possible. Peer
between the frames and see what the bees are doing around the queen cage. Are there
lots of them there, hanging on tightly? Or are they milling around, moving over and
around the cage? Then, remove the cage, either by lifting the frame with the cage ban-
ded to it, or simply lift the cage out using the hanger. See if she is alive and moving,
then gently lay her on the side on the top bars and observe. Do bees rush to the cage, and
grab it tightly? Do they walk around and over the cage, and then walk away? Do some
stay, touching with antennae, feeding the queen? Or do they cover the screen and holes
and look as if they are trying to smother the queen? Let this go on for a few minutes. Be
patient, and do not use smoke.
If the behavior seems casual, not urgent, laid back, then you can be relatively certain
that the queen and bees have accepted each other and things will go as well as things
can go.
If, however, the bees are still clinging to the cage and the screen, if after being re-
moved they return immediately, you can be fairly certain that they haven't yet accep-
ted each other and they need more time. Give them a few more days. Check again, and
if they've settled down (they almost always do), the queen-to- colony relationship has
been established. Releasing the queen is the next step.
