Releasing the Queen

Kinda funny something came up in a conversation yesterday that I forgot most people don't realize, so I thought I'd share that with you. My friend Amy called and I told her that I'd have to call her back because I needed to go release some queens. Her end of the conversation came to a complete stop. "What are you talking about?" she said. Well I explained that the queens were in little cages and we needed to make sure that they got out. Boy did that send her mind spinning. She still didn't get it . . . so here goes, the explanation of the release of the queen.

What happens is the packages, (boxes of bees) arrive and in them is a cage that holds a queen. At one end of the cage there is a tiny cork. When we install the packages, (put them in their new homes) we have to remove that cork and put some "candy" (sugar mixed up about the consistency of either frosting or fudge) in the end to replace the cork. The theory behind that is that the bees, while getting to know the queen will gradually eat away the new candy cork and free her. That gives the bees time to get to know her so that they don't just kill her. Now I don't want you to think that bees are out to kill queens, it's just that it's a very special society and they have to get to know her first. It's kind of funny but when we went in to check all the cages to see if the queens had successfully been released the only noisy rammy and angry hive was the one where the queen still had not been released. All the other hives had already started to get on with what they needed to do. Jim opened up the end of the cage, (the bees had made a dent in it but hadn't gotten it completely gone) and she scooted right out.
So that's what happens when we release the queens. . . .