INTRODUCING. 



291 



INTRODUCING. 



HOW TO TELL WHETHER A COLONY IS 

 QUEEN LESS OR NOT. 



Having discussed mailing and introduc- 

 ing cages, it may be pertinent at this point 

 to give one of the prime essentials in suc- 

 cessful introducing. The very first thing 

 to be determined before you attempt to in- 

 troduce at all, is that your colony is certainly 

 queenless. The fact that there may be no 

 eggs nor larvae in the hive, and tliat yoii 

 can not find the queen, is not sufficient evi- 

 dence that she is absent, although this state 

 of affairs points that way. But during the 

 earlier part of the summer there should be 

 either brood or eggs of some kind if a queen 

 is present. Yes, there should be eggs or 

 brood clear up until the latter part of sum- 

 mer. In the early fall, queens generally 

 stop laying, and shrivel up in size so that a 

 beginner might conclude that the colony is 

 queenless, and tlierefore he must buy a 

 queen. In attempting to introduce the new 

 queen, of course he meets with failure, 

 as she is stung to death, in all probability, 

 and carried out at the hive-entrance. If 

 you can not find eggs or larvse at any season 

 of the year when otiier stocks are breeding, 

 and the supposedly queenless colony builds 

 cells on a frame of unsealed larvse that you 

 give them, you may decide that your colony 

 is surely queenless, and it will be safe to in- 

 troduce a new queen. But when you find 

 eggs, larvfe, and sealed tvorker brood, the 

 presence of queen-cells simply indicates that 

 the bees are either preparing to supersede 

 their queen or making ready to swarm. See 

 Swarming. 



how long shall a colony be queen- 

 less before attempting to intro- 

 DUCE? 



The worst colony to introduce a laying 

 queen to is one that has Ijeen queenless long 

 enough so that there is a possibility of one 

 or more virgin queens being in the hive. It 

 is hard to decide definitely in all cases when 

 such colonies are queenless. Most young 

 virgins, after they are three or four days 

 old, are very apt to be mistaken for work- 

 ers, especially by a beginner. It is not al- 

 ways practicable to wait until they have 

 built queen-cells, especially if you happen 

 to have a nice surplus of laying queens 

 for which you wish to find room. We pre- 

 fer colonies that have not been queenless 

 more than a couple of days — just long 

 enough to see cells start, and just long 

 enough so the bees begin to recognize their 

 loss, but not long enough for them to get 

 cells under way. Cells nicely started or 



capiied over are quite apt to make the colo- 

 ny feel as if it wanted something of its own ; 

 and when a laying queen is introduced to 

 them they take a notion sometimes that 

 they ioon't have a strange mother. 



WHAT TO DO IF BEES BALL THE QUEEN. 



When we introduced queens in the old- 

 fashioned way — that is, before cages were 

 constructed so as to release queens auto- 

 matically — we used to experience much 

 trouble by bees balling queens. If the bees 

 were not ready to accept her when she 

 was released by the apiarist, they were pret- 

 ty sure to ball her. But here is a point 

 that it is well to observe : When the bees 

 let out the queen they very rarely ball her. 

 But when it is necessary for the apiarist to 

 perform the work, opening the hive, accom- 

 panied by general disturbance, is apt to 

 cause the bees to ball her as soon as re- 

 leased. Well, suppose they do ball her. Lift 

 the ball out of the hive and blow smoke 

 on it until the bees come off one by one. 

 When you can see the queen, get hold of her 

 wings and pull the rest of the bees off from 

 her by their wings. Do not be nervous 

 about it, and you can get her loose and 

 cage her again. Put more candy in the 

 opening, and give her another trial. Some 

 one— we do not remember who — advised 

 dropping the queen, when she is balled, into 

 a vessel of water. The angry bees will im- 

 mediately desert the queen when, she can 

 be easily taken out of the water, and re- 

 caged. We have never tried it, Imt we be- 

 lieve we should prefer the method first de- 

 scribed. 



WHAT TO DO WHEN THE QUEEN FLIES 

 AWAY. 



Sometimes a beginner is very nervous, 

 and by a few bungling motions may manage 

 to let the queen escape from the hive where 

 he expects to introduce her. Or this may 

 happen: The queen may take wing right 

 off from the frame — become a little alarmed 

 because there are no bees about her, and 

 fly. In either case, step back immediately 

 after opening the hive, and in fifteen or 

 twenty minutes she is quite likely to return 

 to the same spot, and you must not be sur- 

 prised if you find her again in the hive. If 

 you do not discover her in the hive near 

 where you are standing, in about half an 

 hour look in other hives near by. If you 

 see a ball of bees somewhere down among 

 the frames, you may be quite sure tliat here 

 is the queen that fiew away, and that she 

 has made a mistake, and entered the wrong 

 hive. 



