INTRODUCING. 



290 



INTRODUCING. 



closed down to a small space ; and unless 

 the weather is very warm, place the whole 

 in a warm room. Let the queen and her at- 

 tendants loose in this hive, and the young 

 bees, as they hatch out, will soon make a 

 swarm. As several who have tried this 

 plan have been so careless as to leave the 

 entrance open and let the queen get out, we 

 would warn you especially to have your 

 hive so close that no bee can by any possi- 

 bility get out.* If the frames you have 

 selected contain no unsealed brood, you 

 will have very little loss ; but otherwise 

 the larvae, having no bees to feed them, 

 will mostly starve. As soon as a few Imn- 

 dred bees are hatched, the queen will be 

 found with them, and they will soon make 

 a cluster. When the combs have been taken 

 from strong colonies, where the queen is 

 laying hundreds of eggs in a day, in a week 

 or two the swarm will become strong. 

 Three frames will do very well at first, and 

 one or two more may be added in the course 

 of a week or two. Remember, no live bee is 

 to be given to the queen. A queen is sel- 

 dom lost, even by the first plan given, if you 

 are careful, and watch them until they are 

 safely received. 



There is another \vay that has a little 

 the preference. In order to describe it we 

 can do no better than to make an extract 

 from an editorial in Gleanings in Bee Culture^ 

 page 539, Vol. XXI. : 



We have just received a consignment of 30 im- 

 ported Italian queens, direct from Italy, by ex- 

 press. Every queen came tlirougli alive and in 

 good order, and thej' are now introduced into the 

 apiary without tlie loss of one. Our method of in- 

 troducing- with this lot was sometlung we had not 

 tried before on so large a number of queens. We 

 tooli four or five strong colonies, and divided them 

 up into 30 one-frame nuclei. This was done in the 

 forenoon. In the afternoon we transferred the im- 

 ported queens, without any attendants, to Miller 

 introducing-cages, placing one in every nucleus 

 above mentioned. Most of the queens were out at 

 the expiration of two days, in good order, and they 

 are now all out. 



You see, the point is here: These newly divided 

 nuclei will have old and young bees, and more or 

 less liatching brood. Before tlie imported queen is 

 released, the old bees will have returned to the old 

 stand, and it is these old fellows that always make 

 trouble in introducing. By the time the queen is 

 released, there are none but young bees, including 

 tliose tliat were brought to the nucleus-stand and 

 those that are hatched out in the interim. These, 

 of course, all being young, will accept their new 

 mother, without any trouble. The plan has proved 

 to be so satisfactory that we shall employ it here- 

 after for all valuable queens. 



*They can be set out and allowed to Hy in two or 

 three days. 



DIRECT •METHOD OF INTKODUCTION. 



Where it is desired to introduce a queen 

 from a nucleus to a queenless colony, both 

 in the same yard, the operation can usually 

 be performed with safety and with very little 

 labor, as follows : The colony to receive Ihe 

 queen should be made broodless a few hours 

 in advance. Go to the nucleus and lift out 

 two frames, bees and all, with the queen in 

 between. Put these down in the center of 

 the queenless colony; close up the hive and 

 don't go near it for several days. The bees 

 that have been queenless and broodless are 

 crying for a mother. When she is given 

 them with a large force of her own subjects, 

 she seems to be protected, even if she does 

 not have the odor of the new colony which, 

 by the way, has been modified by the bees 

 and brood given them from the other hive. 



Tills is a modification of the Simmins 

 direct method of introducing. It could not 

 be used in the case of a queen sent through 

 the mails. 



THE SIMMINS FASTING METHOD. 



While this has been discussed to a greater 

 or less extent in the bee-journals, the plan, 

 while very simple, is not one that we would 

 recommend in the case of a valuable queen, 

 or in any event to a beginner. It is as fol- 

 lows : The queen to be introduced should 

 be put in a cage at night without attendants 

 and without food. She should thus be con- 

 fined for thirty minutes when she mtist be 

 released by lamplight over the frames of the 

 queenless colony, and the hive closed up for 

 48 hours. This will work safely in many 

 cases, but we are sure there are some condi- 

 tions where it does not. 



DUAL PLAN OF INTRODUCING. 



Another plan is to introduce two virgins 

 or laying queens at one operation to save 

 the necessary time it takes for the bees to 

 get acquainted with the queen. This is de- 

 scribed in detail under the head of Queen- 

 rearing, to which the reader is directed. 



HOW SOON WILL AN INTRODUCED QUEEN 

 REGIN TO LAY V 



As a general thing, we may expect her to 

 begin laying the next day; but sometimes, 

 especially if the queen has been a long time 

 prevented from laying, as in the case of an 

 imported queen, she may not lay for three 

 or four days, or even a week. If introduced 

 in the fall of the year, she may not com- 

 mence laying at all until siting, unless tlie 

 colony is fed i-egularly every day lor a week 

 or more. This will always start a queen 

 that is good for auy thing. 



