A newly mated queen cannot simply be dropped into a queenless colony — workers recognise her by scent as a stranger and may kill her by "balling" (a tight, overheating knot of stinging workers). Beekeepers buy acceptance time with a protective cage: a screened box holding the queen and a few attendants, sealed at one end with a plug of worker-softened candy. Workers on the outside slowly chew through the candy over one to three days while, on the inside, the colony's pheromone environment shifts and the queen's scent seeps out gradually — by the time she chews free, the workers are far more likely to accept rather than attack her.
The same principle governs queen banking, where dozens of spare mated queens are held for weeks in small cages inside a queenless "bank" colony fed by nurse-bee attendants, and queen transport, where cages are kept in a ventilated, temperature-buffered box with candy or fondant so attendants can feed the queen safely for days in transit.
A caged mated queen sits between two hive frames while the colony's workers cluster around her, chewing through a candy plug over simulated hours until she is finally exposed — and the colony either calms into an accepting guard circle or balls tightly around her.
Acceptance risk during queen introduction is driven by cage method, colony receptiveness, queenless duration, and ambient temperature — the same variables that matter for banking spare queens and transporting them safely.
Pick a cage type, set the colony's receptiveness, queenless duration and temperature, then speed up time and watch the candy plug deplete. When it opens, the predicted acceptance chance decides whether the queen is welcomed or balled.
A slow candy-plug release lets the queen's pheromones diffuse through the colony for a day or more before direct contact — this gradual scent hand-off is why candy-plug cages have far higher acceptance rates than dropping a queen straight onto the comb.