696 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. 31, 1901. 



and all were more or less mixed. Two seasons, if sweet 

 clover had not come to my aid, my crop would have been a 

 failure. Three and four years ago sweet clover gave me 

 my surplus, while this year and last alfalfa was almost the 

 entire crop, sweet clover growing in abundance but almost 

 a complete failure so far as nectar was concerned. 



These things are facts and conditions to be considered 

 |n our business calculations, hence I discuss them in this 

 initial article on apiculture as a business. The irrigated 

 regions are more certain to have some honey every year, 

 but what is an abundant or partial crop and no income 

 from it ? 



We will continue the business aspect of apiculture. 

 Larimer Co., Colo. 



Introducing ttueen-Bees by the Improved Method. 



BY W. W. M'nE.\L. 



It devolves upon me to write further of the method of 

 introducing queen-bees, recently submitted for the benefit 

 of the readers of the American Bee Journal, and which was 

 referred to Wni. M. Whitney. 



I wish to say that I have no ill feelings whatever to- 

 wards my opponent; neither is it love for discussion that 

 brings me before this intelligent audience of bee-keepers. 

 In taking up the subject again I do so because there is a 

 practical principle involved which honey-producers cannot 

 afford to ignore. 



Mr. Whitney now professes to be very much surprised 

 (see page 653) that I should take seriously his statements 

 antagonizing one of the grandest truths which have been 

 given to the bee-keeping world. If he knew the position he 

 took was not "tenable," then what motive had Mr. Whit- 

 ney in taking the position at all? If the assertion be true— 

 " love,_ hatred, generosity, and selfishness" are unknown 

 qualities in the make-up of the honey-bee, how does Mr. 

 W. harmonize this with his former statement that the 



honey-bee is " prompted by the highest type of love and 



patriotism?" 



This, however, is not the point directly at issue and I 

 must not linger here. I did not " take seriously " the words 

 of my esteemed fellow bee-keeper, though it seems that he 

 is pleased to place a lower estimate upon his writings than 

 I was wont to accord him. 



Now, what I specially wish to ask of Mr. Whitney, and 

 all who are interested in apiculture, is to try the method I 

 give you for the safe and practical means of introducing a 

 queen-bee. In the name of progress, I ask of you, at least, 

 to try the plan and see if it is not good. 



I have tested it and find that I can introduce a queen- 

 bee safely into any colony where a queen-bee can be intro- 

 duced by any other method; and, in many instances, more 

 successfully than by any plan of caging. I know others 

 can do what I have done if they pursue the same course. 

 One does not need to be an " expert ;" in fact, the system is 

 pre-eminently adapted to the " beginner. " The fact that 

 these teachings are not recorded in the pages of any of the 

 recognized works on bee-culture does not signify that they 

 should not be there. 



I hope no one of the readers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal is so impractical as not to be able to recognize a good 

 thing till it is written in some text-book. 



Instead of throwing cold water on a principle that has 

 real merit, why doesn't Mr. Whitney come out and do the 

 proper thing and advise those beginners against the folly 

 of purchasing such valuable queens as he seems to have in 

 mind? What use has a beginner with a queen so valuable 

 that he cannot make use of her? 



Consider the rapidity with which queens may be ex- 

 changed, and the time thus gained, when time means honey, 

 eventually stored by bees reared from eggs laid by the 

 queen during the interval the advocator of the caging 

 method would have her confined in a cage 1 



When the queen of a strong colony is taken away and 

 introduced into another by caging her, I believe that "it will 

 be safe to say that a week's time will be required for the 

 queen to reach her former proficiency in egg-laying. Now, 

 all this causes the new queen to appear at her worst at the 

 very time when she should be in her best physical condition. 

 The colony thereby becomes impatient from the inability 

 of the strange queen to fill the place of the one taken away, 

 and shifts its hopes to the rapidlj'-developing larval queens; 

 thus, in a measure, she becomes a prisoner awaiting execu- 

 tion by her younger rivals. 



To show further the utility of immediate introduction 

 of the queen, let me relate that I have found no difficulty in 



thus introducing queens into colonies from which the old 

 queen has not been removed. This is no " idle dream," 

 and what I have done you can do. 



Where a colony occupies two sets of combs, take the 

 old queen and a frame or two of the brood and place them 

 in the upper story over a queen-excluding honey-brood. 

 Now close the hive and smoke the colony from the entrance 

 while pounding lightly upon it to frighten the bees thor- 

 oughly. Do not use smoke enough to drive out the bees, 

 but a moderate smoking while pounding on the hive 

 frightens them so efticiently that the stranger queen may 

 be allowed to run right into the hive from the entrance; 

 and she will occupy the lower apartment as wholly as if the 

 former queen had been removed. 



These are facts, and I give them as freely as the air we 

 breathe, because I want to help as I have been helped. 



Suppose you do make one or two unsuccessful attempts, 

 is that sufficient cause for you to cast the thought aside as 

 being destructive to the best interests of both the bees and 

 bee-keeper? 



Lest some should even yet not understand, I repeat in 

 all simplicity: Have your stranger queen at hand when 

 j'ou take away the reigning one. Disturb the colony as lit- 

 tle as possible while catching the old queen; when she is 

 found, close the hive and smoke the colony from the en- 

 trance, pounding on the hive, of course, while doing this. 

 Do not smoke the bees constantly, but smoke and pound 

 alternately, for two or three minutes only; then allow the 

 new queen to run into the hive by holding the cage up close 

 to the entrance so that she may not escape in the air. Send 

 a pufl" or two of smoke into the hive after her, but don't 

 pound on the hive any more. The object is to frighten the 

 bees as much, and the queen as little, as possible. See? 



Next, be content to let a good job alone for a few days 

 and do not disturb the colony. A frightened queen is 

 almost certain to run up against her doom, be it in her own 

 hive or in the midst of stranger bees. 



I cannot continually call your attention to these living 

 truths; so again I ask that they be tested upon the earliest 

 opportunity; test them thoroughly, and I know that they 

 will stand with you as they have stood with me. 



Scioto Co., Ohio. 



\ Questions and Answers. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. O. O. MILLER. Marengo, III. 



[The Qiiestions may be mailed to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



dfLrect, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail. — Editor.! 



Troubles of an Amateur-Uniting Colonies and Intro- 

 ducing Queens. 



I have subscribed to the Bee Journal and invested in 

 the " A B C of Bee Culture " in the hope of being able to 

 answer my own questions, but, unfortunately, I find mj'self 

 farther at sea than ever, from the fact that the experience 

 of nearly every bee-keeper is directly at variance with that 

 of every other, and even the directions given by the same 

 apiarist contradict themselves constantly. 



For instance, my first instructions were, " Keep your 

 colonies strong ; " so, having several small colonies, I con- 

 cluded to look up " Uniting Bees. " After getting some 

 general directions, I came to " I would advise deferring the 

 uniting of bees until we have several cohl, rainy days in 

 October; " but further on I find, " Beware of having weak 

 colonies to be united in the fall. Much safer to have them 

 all united long before winter comes. " Now, which shall I 

 do — " defer until winter, " or " unite long before winter ? " 



Again, I intended to introduce an Italian queen, so I 

 ordered one and got directions to "remove the old queen 

 at least three days before introducing the new one. " I did 

 this, but the queen was killed. So I ordered another, and 

 read that the proper way to introduce a queen was to "get 

 the old one out, thoroughly frighten the bees, and run in the 

 new one before the bees know what has happened. " I tried 

 this, and also failed. Now, should you wait three days or 

 not wait at all ? The advocate of each plan says he has 

 succeeded with 99 out of 100. I have failed twice out of 

 twice. 



