711 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



able queens 1 introduce to a few young bees only 

 on hatching brood, and build up with hatching 

 brood. R. Wilkin. 



I use more than half a dozen methods— first one 

 ami then another, according to the circumstances. 

 To explain all these methods in detail would be te- 

 dious: besides, they are all explained in back num- 

 bers of journals and bee-books. 



James Heddon. 



a My plan is the good old way that never fails. 

 Take out all escort bees, and cage the queen three 

 days. 1 have tried various other plans recommend- 

 ed, but have had indifferent success. I wish to try, 

 this season, Cheshire's plan of running them in in 

 the evening. Rambler. 



When surplus queens are raised in nuclei in the 

 yard, I frequently use the " Simmins direct-intro- 

 duction " method. Ordinarily 1 decidedly prefer 

 the use of the old-fashioned Betsinger cage. Both 

 of these ways have been frequently described in all 

 the bee periodicals. O. O. Poppleton. 



1 put the queen in a small wire cage and suspend 

 it between two combs, near the brood, but so that 

 she can reach honey through the meshes. I leave 

 her caged from 21 hours, or some less, to 3 or 4 

 days, according to circumstances. One can tell 

 very readily from the action of the bees whether it 

 is safe to release her, and that is my guide. 



Geo. Grimm. 



By several plans, all of which have appeared in 

 Gleanings. For a very choice queen I always 

 use the " caged bees " plan, as I have given in back 

 numbers of this journal, and I have never known a 

 failure, and I have had but one report of such a 

 failure from the many who have used the plan. I 

 consider it absolutely safe in the hands of the nov- 

 ice or the expert. G. M. Doolittle. 



Kill the old queen just before introducing the 

 new one; then cage the new one in the hive for 48 

 hours, and release her by putting a piece of comb 

 honey in place of the stopper of the cage. With an 

 already queenless colony, we do not release the 

 queen till we are sure there are no queen-cells, and 

 that there have not been any for several days past; 

 i. e., till we are sure they are otherwise hopelessly 

 queenless. Dadant & Son. ■ 



I generally use the Peet shipping and introduc- 

 ing cage. Sometimes I make a cage out of a piece 

 of wire cloth 3 or 4 inches square. Cut a piece 

 about half an inch square from each corner, and 

 bend the four edges to a right angle with the rest 

 of it, and as deep as the corners have been cutout. 

 Shake the bees from a comb and place the queen 

 and a few of her bees on the comb when there is 

 honey, and set this cage over them and press the 

 edges into the comb. This is not a new way, but 

 I've never failed with it, neither have I with the 

 Peet cage. A. B. Mason. 



My methods are mostly those recommended in 

 ( i lean i ngs and ABC, and thus so familiar as not 

 to require detail. For introducing a valuable 

 queen, in times when bees are cross and no honey 

 coming in, cage a whole comb of hatching brood; 

 put the queen on it, and hang it in the center of the 

 colony. Another and perhaps better way is to 

 shake the bees all into a box, Doolittle-nucleus 

 style, and give them the queen after they have 

 been worrying for an hour or two. On giving them 

 combs, give different combs, as far as brood will al- 



low, and a different hive— but, of course, on the old 

 location. Make them feel like strangers in a 

 strange land, and they are not likely to attempt the 

 overthrow of the dynasty. E. E. Hasty. 



I make an introducing-cage by taking a piece of 

 wire cloth about five inches square, and bending 

 the edges up at a distance of about seven meshes 

 from the edge. Take a piece of tin of the same 

 size; bend up two adjoining edges, and cut a 3 8-inch 

 square out of the opposite corner. Lay the cage 

 on the tin slide, and put in the queen, and, if neces- 

 sary, a few young bees. Select a level spot on a 

 brood-comb where there is some honey, and, if pos- 

 sible, hatching brood. Lay the cage on the comb, 

 tin down; withdraw the tin slide, and press the cage 

 into the comb just enough to hold it firmly. Leave 

 the queen caged 48 hours, then remove the cage, 

 unless the bees seem hostile. J. A. Green. 



We introduced several old fertile queens last year 

 by putting them into the Peet cage and fastening 

 the cage to the comb, with the tin slide drawn out. 

 I had but one failure in 30; but I lost a 14 00 Car- 

 niolan queen last week. I had a colony with 

 queens in cells almost ready to hatch. She arrived 

 at 6 p. m. We looked over the combs, and supposed 

 we had taken out all of the queen-cells. We put 

 the Carniolan in a Peet cage, and did not take the 

 tin slide out. We put the cage in the hive, left it 

 36 hours, and then removed the tin slide and fast- 

 ened the cage to a comb. About 4 days after, I look- 

 ed the combs over. The queen was out of the cage. 

 I found one queen-cell hatched, and my Carniolan 

 queen dead in front of the hive— just because there 

 was one cell left. E. France. 



The best way to introduce queens, and the safest 

 of all I have tried or seen described, is the cage sys- 

 tem. Cage the queen of the hive for a day or a 

 night, or for three or four hours only, so that the 

 bees are aware of their queen being in the cage, 

 which, of course, is suspended (or sticking) be- 

 tween two brood-combs. Next, take out the cage, 

 put away with the old queen, put the new queen in 

 her place, close the cage with a piece of comb hon- 

 ey instead of the cork, and place it between the 

 combs again in the old spot. The cage, having the 

 scent of their old queen, and the bees knowing her 

 to be in that cage, are cleverly fooled. They liber- 

 ate the queen and receive her every time. Excep- 

 tions to the contrary are very rare. No bees 

 should be in the cage with the queen. 



C. F. Muth. 



Suppose I want to introduce a queen from a nu- 

 cleus to a full colony. 1 take from the nucleus a 

 frame of brood on which is the queen, with its ad- 

 hering bees, and put it, without any preparation, 

 in the full colony. The plan is so little trouble that 

 I can afford an occasional loss by it. If the colony 

 is queenless, and has started queen-cells, I often 

 lift out a frame and put the queen on it upon the 

 brood, right among the bees, without any formali- 

 ty; but the first plan is safer. To introduce an im- 

 ported queen I put frames of just hatching brood 

 in a hive with the queen and no workers, except 

 those attending the queen; close the entrance and 

 put this hive over a strong colony with a double 

 layer of wire cloth between, so there can be no 

 communication between the bees of the two hives; 

 but the heat can rise from below. In four or five 

 days, open the entrance SQ the young bees can fly. 



C. C. Miller. 



