Jon,
I've not released a queen by hand but always left them in the hive in a cage; either a plastic cage with a hard candy plug or in a butler cage with a single sheet of newspaper held over the end...
Yes this is Donald from ELBKA - hope I didn't advise you to buy bees here and then move them north ...... I do think it would be best to sell them on to people here (maybe you could make a profit...
Well I have driven through the town of Wank a coupler of times (pronounced vank). Almost had a car crash when someone asked what the people from there are called.
Just surfing the forum and came across your post about not knowing if your beees are native black. If you want I can do a quick drawwing morph plot on them for you which gives you...