Feeding Queens in Shipping Boxes
An article excerpt from Allen Dick’s
website www.honeybeeworld.com
Queens are shipped by plane and bus in double screened
shipping boxes containing 50 or 100 queens (plus the normal 4%
extra for a total of 52 or 104). Inside the shipping box, each
queen is confined alone in a small cage. These cages are arranged
in rows, with screens facing out, allowing feeding of all queens
by the young bulk bees that are provided, loose in the shipping
box, to travel with the queens, and care for them.
Food for all is provided in the form of bee candy inside the box.
That candy is sufficient for the bees on a short trip, but if
the queens are not to be used for several days, additional feed,
and water must be provided.
Here is how we do it.
On arrival, if the weather is decent, we take the box outside
and let the attendant bees fly. They defecate, if necessary, and
the good ones come back to the box. If this is done late in the
day, they can be closed up and taken inside after an hour or so,
around dusk.
If the box smells bad and the bees look old, we shake them somewhere,
and provide new young attendant bees from the brood combs of a
local hive.
While the lid is off, we cut a feed hole in the
box lid and tape a screen (from an old shipping box) over the
hole so we can change the feed bottle periodically, and so we
can carry the entire box to the field with us without having bees
coming out the feed hole. (Note 1).
We then mix thin syrup (50/50) so the bees have water in their
feed, and we add fumigillan to the syrup for insurance. We also
spray a little water into the screens of the box if it is a dry
day.
We then make a few small nail holes in the lid of a small jar,
fill it, invert it, and place it on the screen. A good box of
bees will sometimes take a half-pint in a day, and too much feeding
can result in comb building on the queen cages in the box, so
only make a few holes in the lid.
We store the shipping box in full light (not direct sun) at normal
room temperature (20º C / 72º F, and the bees last very
nicely for a week or two. I once tried keeping about 10 queens
this way for over a month -- almost two months, actually -- but
the queens were no good after that time. They did not lay.
Note 1: While using the queens in a bee yard, I usually leave
the lid off the shipping box while I am working with it, so the
bees can fly until I am ready to leave. Of course, most come back,
and any left behind have a home.
The Buzz Online!
Remember, you can view The Buzz online by going to the IHPA website
at …
www.ABuzzAboutBees.com
Allen Dick not only has a wealth of knowledge about
bees, but computers as well. He is providing the hosting services
for the new IHPA website.
