attendants?

[peteinwilts]

Hi Guys

Using the Nicot method, I have a batch of nice plump QC's caged ready for their hatching around Sunday/Monday.

I will be preparing a number of single frame NUC's this evening to act as donors for the virgins.
Once the flyers have gone home, the one frame NUC's and a couple of my favourite hives will be moved to a new out apiary to increase the chances of 'good' queens.

Reading on the subject, it suggests that attendants should be placed in with the Queen before introduction to increase the chance of acceptance.

This is the first way I have done this before.

Should I:-

once hatched, remove the cell to give her more room, or does it still contain food or necessary pheromones for the bees to smell?

My queen raising colony's are right little savage so and so's, and will be keeping one of the queen cells each to hopefully help calm them down (eggs from a nice hive). Collecting attendants is going to be challenging. I presume, grab a load and retreat to the car?

Are there any tricks in inserting the attendants whilst trying to stop the virgin from escaping? (some reading literature does not use attendants)

Should the fondant plug go in now, or wait for 48 hours by locking her in with the cap? (the time is variable depending on what you read)

any tips or tricks would be greatly welcomed.


Cheers
Pete

 

[dn170221]

Not an expert myself but I saw this recently and think it may answer some of your queries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2tSkW9YuHY

 

[peteinwilts]

I use a cage for marking. The bees which have been raising the cells are very aggressive and big gloves are required.

should be fun! :-/

 

[B+.]

The bees which have been raising the cells are very aggressive and big gloves are required.

You should be using young nurse bees to raise cells. It sounds like you are using older foraging bees

 

[B+.]

Reading on the subject, it suggests that attendants should be placed in with the Queen before introduction to increase the chance of acceptance.

once hatched, remove the cell to give her more room, or does it still contain food or necessary pheromones for the bees to smell?

My queen raising colony's are right little savage so and so's, and will be keeping one of the queen cells each to hopefully help calm them down (eggs from a nice hive). Collecting attendants is going to be challenging. I presume, grab a load and retreat to the car?

Are there any tricks in inserting the attendants whilst trying to stop the virgin from escaping? (some reading literature does not use attendants)

I'm not sure what you've read but if you leave the attendants in during introduction, there is a danger that they will solicit food from the bees on the outside rather than the queen. This means her pheremones aren't distributed. I always reamove attendants prior to introduction.

Sometimes the queen will go back into her cell to clean out any remaining food (I see this a lot when they emerge in the incubator). If the cell is misshapen she might not be able to get out and will become trapped. Consequently, its a good idea to remove the wax from the Nicot cell. When they emerge in the incubator, I always knock the cell down as soon as they've come out.

Its a good idea to choose a colony for cell raising that you can handle. If they have a tendency to become aggressive, they may not tend the developing cells very well either. If you're going to be in and out of the cell raiser, its a good idea to select a meek colony for the job.

There is a video by Michael Palmer which shows him marking queens and catching attendants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2tSkW9YuHY&list=PLbr7jvL12x94RvRRE0tepOfstgMROmm5D&index=6 You can block the entrance with one hand while you catch the attendants with the other.