If you purchased caged mated Queens from us, we always recommend installing them in a Queenless colony as soon as possible. If you need to keep your Queen caged overnight or for several days you need to remember that Queens need three things to survive: food, water, and nurse bees.
You have two easy options for storing your Queens short-term. The easiest method is to purchase a battery box from us and ask us to shake fresh nurse bees with your Queens. As soon as you get home you should take a small piece of a sponge dampened with water and place inside the battery box with the Queens and the nurse bees. For food we recommend taking a small amount of powdered sugar and mixing it with an even smaller amount of water. This should form a paste that should have the consistency of bread dough. The nurse bees will be able to take water from the damp sponge and sugar from the powdered sugar paste aka “Queen candy” to feed the Queens with. Keep an eye on the sponge to make sure it stays damp and to make sure there is always Queen candy to feed on.
Another method is called “banking”. Place your Queen cages above a Queen excluder on either a Queen right or a Queenless colony that is strong. Take care to make sure the end of the Queen cage is capped off with something that the bees cannot chew through. If you do not block the candy filled entrance on the cages the bees will release the Queens early and they will fight to the death.
Just be aware that anytime you store Queens for periods of time even under optimal conditions there is always a risk that some will die in the cage. We recommend having your splits made prior to picking our Queens up so you can install the Queens immediately after leaving our farm.
Check out Oregon State University’s amazing PDF for information regarding Queen Banking:
