568 Journal of Agriculture. [10 Sept., 1910. 



When a swarm issues and the queen is seen she may be caged, the 

 cage left on tlie alighting board till a few bees have collected on it. It 

 should then be carried to a convenient place where it is desired the swarm 

 should settle, that is, if the swarm is to be hived on a new stand. To 

 hive it on the old stand it is only necessary to remove the parent colony 

 to a new location and put the new hive in its place, the cage with the 

 queen being left on the alighting board till the swarm commences to return 

 when it is placed between the frames. 



This free-way cage may also be u.sed for caging the queen of a hive 

 before swarming till all brood is sealed ; after breaking out all queen 

 cells, the queen is released. When superseding queens it is advisable to 

 keep the old queens till new ones are safely introduced. In these cages 

 queens may be kept for weeks between the super combs of any strong 

 colony, having an old queen below the excluder. 



During swarming time it frequently happens that a number of fine 

 virgin queens are found hatching in a swarmed colony which would often 

 be very useful to supply to other stocks a few days later, or to nuclei the 

 queens of which are not yet laying. When caged in the hive they hatched 

 from, or one in the same condition, any number of virgin queens may be 

 kept in perfect condition for four or five days, and they will be fed and 

 attended to by the workers. 



To introduce strange queens or virgins the queen-excluding slides {a) 

 are removed and slides ib) and {c) in.serted instead. The queen to be in- 

 troduced is put into the cage alone, the square hole in the lower end of 

 the cage being filled with queen candy. The only means of communication 

 between the queen and the workers is through the wire screen {b), from 

 which the queen can withdraw should the bees be hostile to her at first. 

 The cage is suspended between the centre brood combs of the hive and the 

 queen soon assumes the odour of the hive and is accepted by the bees 

 when they release her from the cage by eating out the candy. W'hen in- 

 troducing virgin queens to colonies from which a fertile queen has only 

 just been removed, it is best to cover the candy with the slide {d) for two 

 days as virgin queens are not .so readily accepted. 



The cage described is not sold by supply dealers but is easily con- 

 structed by any one at all handy. All that is needed i.s — 



Wood — one piece, 1^ x jh x ^ (e) ; two pieces, f x f x ^ (/) ; and two 

 pieces, 4^ x i| x ^ (g) ; with a shallow groove on three sides for the 

 slides. 



Metal — two pieces, queen-excluding zinc, 3I x ^ (a) ; one piece wire 

 screen, 3I x ^ {b) ; one piece, tin or zinc, 3j x -^ {c) ; one piece, 

 i| X ^ {d) ; and one piece i\ x \ (/;). 



PUMP AND WATER MEASUREMENT. 



On receipt of the following queries from G.C.B. relative to Pump and 

 W'ater Measurement they were referred to Mr. Kenyon, Engineer for 

 Agriculture, who has furnished the replies given hereunder: — 



(i) How to tell the depth of water in an overhead tank? 



(2) How to measure volume of water flowing in a V-shaped flume? 



(3) About packing glands of oil pump in an oil engine? 



(4) How to measure brake horse-power of an engine? 



