I laid the cage down on top of the frames, screen up. Bees started casually crawling up onto the top of the cage, it was about a minute and I heard her piping. I picked up the cage and held it near my ear and heard her piping. I used my pinky finger and gently scooted the bees off of the face of the cage, they were not stuck on the cage aggressively. Then I put the cage back on the frames, and tidied the yard a bit, and then installed the queens, put the lid back on.
Crossing fingers
Little late
Generally speaking virgins pipe.
Unless you saw your mated queen squeaking out a piper,
I have often gone to requeen a hive and left mated queen in cage and waited a few minutes, more by curiosity, as there was indifference to the mated queen by the workers.
Sure enough within a short time the virgin in the hive started piping which told me to not add the mated queen. Now it's become a fail safe test..... indifference to s caged mated queen generally (to me) means there's a solution in place that I didn't see.
Banked mated queens will occasionally pipe in battery boxes, but it's generally rare that a mated q pipes as she has now drawn the attention of a ninja virgin and her demise.
Depending on how long the mated queen was banked, the phermones can be weak and the host bees will make a choice to kerp their virgin.
In the case of strong phermones, the bees will decide who is the better and choose accordingly.
Queens are incredibly sensitive and this whole process of moving mated qs from mating nucs to colonies is less than ideal.
Sometimes they faint and play possum, lol you think they had a heart attack. It's just the stress.
On the whole I think we're better off if time is available to use cells.
Cheers
T
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