Vol. XV. 



NOV. 15, 1887. 



No. 22. 



I%^^^sfo^?^^ir^:7n?Jr'&%i] Established in 1873. 



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INTRODUCING VIRGIN QVEENS. 



HOW doolittijE does it. 



§OME time ago I wrote an article for Glean- 

 ings, on the desirability of introducing' vir- 

 gin queens, four to si.x days old, to nuclei 

 from which a laying queen had just been tak- 

 en. The want, as I then felt, of some sure 

 plan of safe introduction of old virgin queens was, 

 that the queen-breeder might the sooner get a lay- 

 ing queen In a nucleus from which one had been 

 shipped, so that he could live at rearing queens 

 at the low prices to which they had fallen. That 

 such was an object worth accomplishing, I think no 

 one will deny; but, worthy as that might be, I think 

 there is a need now of such a plan of safe introduc- 

 tion for four and five days old virgin queens which 

 amounts almost to a necessity. 



The cause of this need of which I speak is the 

 idea which seems to be gaining ground rapidly in 

 the minds of our best bee-keepers, that a great 

 gain can be secured by sending virgin queens from 

 one apiary to another apiary at quite a distance, in 

 order to get a direct cross from bees of the best 

 strains, through the fertilization of the queen. A 

 virgin queen is not fit to start on a journey till she 

 is 2+ hours old; and as from two to four days must 

 be consumed in her transit by mail, it will be seen 

 that the fact that I'fny V"""!/ virgin queens maybe 

 quite successfully introduced has no bearing on the 

 subject whatever. That a flve-day-old virgin queen 

 is a hard thing to introduce, is proven from the fact 

 that I sent nine such queens to one of our most suc- 

 cessful queen-breeders, and five to another, and 

 the first lost six out of the nine in introducing, 

 while the latter lost three out of five. I have tried 

 all the plans that have ever come under my notice 

 for introducing these flve-day-oid queens, and 



many that have originated with myself, and will say 

 that all, that are any thing like practical, fail so 

 many times that they can not be called a success. 

 That all may study into this matter in the near fu- 

 ture, with the hope that out of our thousands of 

 bee-keepers a successful plan may come, is the ob- 

 ject of this article. As a little for a starting-point, 

 I will give the two most practical plans which I 

 have tried, which have come the nearest to success. 



The first and most often successful is as follows: 

 Make a round wire-cloth cage, about an inch in di- 

 ameter and S'/z inches long. Into one end fit a per- 

 manent stopper; and for the other, saw off a piece 

 of old soft-wood broom-handle, five inches long. 

 Whittle one end down so it will go into the end of 

 the cage Vt inch, when a '^a-inch hole is to be bored 

 through, lengthwise. Ne.xt fill this hole with the 

 original Good candy, made of granulated sugar and 

 honey, and pack it in with a plunger quite tightly. 

 Now cage the virgin queen in this cage; and as you 

 go to remove the laying queen, take the cage along 

 with you. After having removed the laying queen, 

 and replaced the frames back in the hive, lay the 

 cage lengthwise between the top-bars of the two 

 frames having the most brood in them. Put the 

 quilt over all, and close the hive. As it takes the 

 bees about three days to burrow through or dig out 

 the five inches of candy, the bees are pretty well 

 acquainted with their loss and the state of affairs 

 before they get to the queen. In a week's time I 

 generally find this <iueen laying, when the introduc- 

 tion is successful, and this happens about four out 

 of five times. 



The ne.\t best plan is the Alley plan of waiting 

 three days after the removal of a laying queen, when 

 the virgin queen is dropped in honey and rolled over 

 in the same, after which she is dipped out and poured 

 down between the frames among the bees. With th is 



