1500 Department of Agricultuke • 



queens. The fact is, when I see a poor queen I kill her at once, if 

 it is in the season when I have surplus queens on hand. Then I 

 introduce a young laying queen before closing the hive. I then 

 mark the hive so that I know what has been done, and give it no 

 more attention until some days later, when I am again working in 

 said out-apiary. 



I want to say a little more about the hard-candy stopper. It is 

 very much more convenient to use than the soft candy usually 

 made with sugar and honey. It is cleaner to handle. By the 

 use of hard candy the apiarist can learn to gauge the time he 

 desires his queens to be liberated. 



The apiarist will soon learn how much hard candy to use and 

 how to use it. 



The hardness of the candy and the strength of the colony have 

 something to do with the length of time required to liberate the 

 queen, by using a piece of candy l^/o inches long. If you set the 

 nail through the cage for the candy to rest on, so that only %-inch 

 of the candy is covered with the cage, and ^-inch of the candy 

 protrudes above the cage, then the bees will eat the same size of 

 candy stopper away very much sooner than they would if the 

 candy stopper were crowded down into the cage the whole length 

 of the candy. 



Queens can just as well be introduced some days after the re- 

 moval of the old queen, the same as with some other cages that 

 require soft candy; but remember to use just as much hard 

 candy as you need to confine the queen the desired length of time. 



Many will think that the bees will not eat the hard candy away 

 and liberate the queen ; but they will do it with the spiral cage. 



The candy becomes softer after being covered with bees, and 

 they eat it away faster than you would think. They eat it from 

 all sides through the cage until the candy is so small that the 

 bees go into the cage with the queen before she walks out. The 

 bees never kill the queen in the cage. 



In due time the queen walks out of the cage quietly. She is 

 now safely introduced. 



It is better not to open the hive for the next few days after the 

 introduction of a new queen. 



Many queens are killed by opening the hive too soon after they 

 have been safely introduced, before they begin laying freely. 



