Mike, I do not know how much feedback you ever get from your customers but I am going to tell you how I got on with my new queens.



I received two queens from you on the 18th June 2005 which were to introduce to a particularly aggressive stock I keep on a friend?s allotment.

At 5pm on the way home from work I divided the stock into two and removed the queen. I then went back at 8pm and introduced the two queens in their cages.

I left them for ten days and then examined both stocks. The smaller had not released the queen so I opened the cage and dropped her between the frames. She promptly reappeared and flew off. The other stock had the queen walking around the frames quite happily so I felt I had a partial success.

I resolved to leave them for at least twenty one days and in fact went on holiday until the 2nd August.

Last night, the 8th August, I went to check both stocks.

The smaller stock was still busy and in fact the bees had changed colour. They are paler now with more prominent stripes.

My examination found my blue marked runaway queen had in fact returned and there was larvae and capped brood.

The other larger portion was now even larger and not wanting to disturb them too much only looked through them until I found the other marked blue queen.

There was larvae and capped brood along the way and again the bees have changed colour.

They certainly seemed less aggressive and only one followed me more then ten metres when I left the hives, I was used to them escorting me all the way back to my car.

I am well pleased with the way things are working so far and look forward to a calmer beekeeping experience in future.



Many thanks.



Robert Davis.