371 



American Vae Journal 



As the old lady said in passing the candies. " Take a lot. take two— handfuls.' 



them out of the way. It is not best to 

 have a colony queenless too long — 

 possibly two days being better than 

 two weeks, although the new queen 

 may be in the hive before the old one 

 is removed, provided the bees cannot 

 get at her to harm her until after the 

 old queen is gone. 



With these principles in mind — 

 which are put forward with none too 

 much confidence as to their complete- 

 ness or correctness — we are ready to 

 consider actual practice. You do not 

 say what instruction accompanied the 

 queens, but a common way is to in- 

 struct that the old queen be removed 

 and the cage with the new queen be 

 placed between the frames or on the 

 top-bar, allowing the bees to eat out 

 the candy, thus liberating the queen. 

 That might mean that the queen would 

 be out in a day, two days, or longer, 

 depending somewhat upon the condi- 

 tion of the candy, the softer the candy 

 the sooner the release. If no honey 

 were coming in, feeding would ensure 

 greater safety. It is possible that fail- 

 ure would have been avoided if the 

 queen had been longer in the hive be- 

 fore being released. You could make 

 sure that the queen would not be re- 

 leased for 3 or 4 days or longer. Tack 

 on a piece of tin, or in some other 

 way prevent the bees from getting at 

 the candy. Then, after the cage has 

 been in the hive 2, 3, or 4 days, remove 

 the tin and let the bees free the queen. 



That would make introduction safer, 

 as the queen would have more time to 

 acquire the hive odor. 



Indeed, many queens have been in- 

 troduced in that way with rarely a fail- 

 ure in this locality. The queen was 

 merely left fast for 3 days in the cage 

 between the combs (in the height of 

 the harvest the cage was stuck into 

 the entrance), and then the bees were 

 allowed access to the candy. A few 

 days after time for the queen to be out 

 of the cage — perhaps a week after, but 

 before time for young queens to hatch 

 from queen-cells started on the brood 

 — examination was made to see if the 

 queen was laying. Often queen-cells 

 would be found at this time, which 

 were destroyed. Possibly the bees 

 might have destroyed them on their 

 own account, but no chances were 

 taken. Sometimes it happens that the 

 queen does not lay until she is out of 

 the cage a week or so, and then does 

 good work; but in most cases when 

 she is so long about it she turns up 

 missing a few days later. 



There is a way of introducing a 

 queen that is entirely safe and certain. 

 Take combs containing brood that is 

 mostly or entirely sealed. (If the 

 combs be put over a queen excluder 

 above a strong colony for 8 days, all 

 the brood will be sealed.) Put 3 or 

 more such combs into an empty hive, 

 being sure to brush from them every 

 bee. Put in the queen, and close the 



hive absolutely bee tight. Put the hive 

 where it will not be cooler than about 

 80 degrees. This may be in the house, 

 but perhaps a better way is to set the 

 hive over a strong colony, with wire- 

 cloth between the two stories, so that 

 the heat may come up from below 

 without letting any bees up. 



After 5 or 6 days the hive may be 

 put on a stand where it is to remain, 

 and to avoid robbing let the entrance 

 be so small for a few days that only 

 one bee at a time can get out or in. 

 Then the colony can be gradually built 

 up by the addition of sealed brood 

 from time to time. Although entirely 

 safe, this plan is too troublesome to be 

 used with any except a very valuable 

 queen. 



Another way that is not quite so safe 

 is very much less trouble. It is to use 

 the plan generally given in the instruc- 

 tions that come with the caged queen, 

 only to get all the older or field bees 

 out of the hive, remembering that these 

 older bees are the ones that make 

 trouble. How will you get all the field 

 bees out of the hive ? Very simply. 

 Let A be the hive that contains the 

 colony that is to receive the queen. 

 Take a frame of brood from A, or 

 from some other hive, and put it in a 

 hive we call B. It doesn't matter much 

 what is done with the empty space in 

 B, but it may be well to put the frame 

 of brood at one side of the hive, put- 

 ting 2 or 3 empty frames next to it, 



