Thanks, Rodney. I usually do that too. A local commercial beekeeper says he doesn’t have time to do that. He smokes and releases with most of them accepted. He does them in sets of 20-40 starting with the splits, then goes back to the first one to release the queens. So there’s 30-60 minutes for them to realise they’re queenless. I wonder if the race makes a difference. He has Italians. I have one mean colony that never accepts a new queen no matter the queenless period. They kill the new queen and make their own. Next time, I’ll split them to several small colonies. Keep going back to knock out any queens they’re making before introducing my new queens.

Thanks, Hank. 2023 will be wonderful. Happy new year!

Thanks, Mun. Yes, she’s settled in nicely. Was a bit slow to start, but they’re building up pretty strong now.