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Podcast: Honey Bee Obscura Podcast
Episode: Plain Talk: Releasing Tew Queens
Description: In this hands-on episode of Honey Bee Obscura, Jim is back in the bee yard and walks listeners through a personal and sometimes risky process: directly releasing queens into newly installed packages. As he narrates the steps in real-time, he reflects on past successes—and hard-learned lessons—of skipping the traditional candy plug method. Jim explains his reasons for preferring direct release and shares observations about bee behavior, queen acceptance, and the potential dangers involved. He details his cautious approach, including how he assesses queen health, minimizes colony disruption, and avoids smoke to reduce stress. Listeners get a re...