Queen Confinement Cage is used to trap the queen for producing properly aged larvae for grafting and also for varroa mite control. This unit is also known as a frame trap. Worker bees are able to squeeze through the wire excluder material but queens and drones cannot.
Queen Confinement Cage Options:
Varroa Mite Control
- Confine the queen on an empty comb and place in the queen confinement cage
- After 7 days, remove the frame and substitute another frame with the queen trapped again
- After 18 days, both frames will be full of sealed brood and, hopefully, full of varroa mites trapped with the only brood available to them
- Remove both frames and place in a freezer to kill the mites
Queen Isolation for Egg Laying / Larvae Harvest
- Confine the queen on an open brood comb frame and place in the queen confinement trap
- After 3 days, remove the confinement cage from the frame
- Monitor this frame and over the next few days you will have emerged young larvae that are the perfect age for grafting into queen cell cups
