Plastic Queen Cage
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A queen bee and her entourage travelled to my apiary in this queen cage. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)
Plastic Queen Cages
So how do queen bees travel? They have an entourage -really - and they travel in a very interesting plastic cage.
When I first started to teach beekeeping, beginning students would call or text me panicking about how to get the queen out of the queen cage. These cages are known as JZ-BZ queen cages, cleverly designed to give the beekeeper several options as well as more easily fit between frames.
In addition to grid openings to allow the queen honey bee and worker bees to be fed a drop of honey and water while in transit, there is a small round opening that can be used to add or subtract bees.
Be careful opening that round top, a queen bee can be fast and exit if you don’t quickly place a thumb over the opening.
The small round opening of a plastic queen cage. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)
In addition, the whole top of the queen cage is hinged to open, as needed. This is a good option if the beekeeper wants to directly release the queen bee and her entourage into a colony.
The whole top of the queen cage also flips open. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)
Finally, to allow the bees to release the queen, the tube of the cage can be filled with a small marshmallow or sugar “candy” worker bees will consume to release the bees themselves.
Sometimes these plastic cages also have bottoms that open. This one does not.
The long spout is where sugar candy is added so bees can release the bees. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)
Here’s how the queen cage sits nicely between the frames. I like putting the sugar plug at the top so that I can gauge how soon the worker bees will release the cage residents.
Placing the queen cage this way also gives the temporary residents more room. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)
These plastic queen cages can also be re-used now that you know how to open it!
