>KPTRMBER 1, 1915 



721 



l)l('s. lii the suniiiR'r oC llMi! 1 recciNod 

 (|iu'ciis IVoin several cliU'ereiit breodei's, ami 

 |ii()iiiptly luidei'look fo inli'odiiee lliein, up- 

 DU their arrival, by the '^v-oko plan. Tlie 

 v.hole dozen whifh T had a* Uiis lime were 

 siK'cessl'ully introduced, and the grealex" 

 majority were laying in two days. Conse- 

 (|iiently 1 liail^l I his as a cure for i\}\ past 

 lioubles. This was at a time when nectar 

 was t'otning' in quite freelv. i^ad il. b("en 

 otherwise the results would liave been dif- 

 ferent, as 1 learned later. 



About a month later 1 received some 

 (jueeiis and attempted to introduce them b}' 

 the same metiiod; but I was astonished to 

 find that not more than ten per cent were 

 accepted, due to the fact that nectar had 

 ceased coming in. 



Last fall 1 delayed oi'dering all my queens 

 till late, and attem})ted to introduce them 

 l)y the smoke method, but found them all 

 later carried out to the front of the hive. 

 1 then tried the cage plan, but with no 

 l)('tter success. Almost exaspeiated, and 

 with a couple of dozen queens on my hands. 

 1 looked in vain for a solution. There was 

 no nectar coming in, and brood in few of 

 the colonies. I put the cages (wire down) 

 over the brood-chambers of a couple of 

 strong colonies, knowing that the tempera- 

 ture was about right for the health of the 

 bees. A^bout a day later I again decided to 

 try introducing them by the smoke method. 

 1 i-emoved the old queens one day; and the 

 next morning early, while all was quiet, I 

 ran in the new queens at the entrance after 

 smoking. To my surprise practically all 

 were accepted. 



Fired Avith this success I immediately 

 ordered a dozen moi'e, as I had about that 

 many colonies wdiich I wished to requeen. 

 These did not reach me until October. I 

 now placed the cage with each queen over 



1 1 (■ !)i'()iid-cha;iihci' ol' Ihc colony to which 

 she was to he int rodiic<'(l, iniioving the old 

 (|ue('U a day lalcr. I lien inlroducing by the 

 smoke method iLc I'ollowing morning wiien 

 all was quiet. All were accepted, and com- 

 menced laying, with the exception of one 

 which died later. My experience has shown 

 me that no method will work satisfactorily 

 after queens have been in the mails for a 

 week or longer until all odors foreign to the 

 hive are first dispelled by that of some 

 colony. Apparently it makes no difference 

 whether the queen to be introduced is plac- 

 ed o\er the colony to which she is to be 

 given (although tliis is the preferable way) 

 or over any colony, so long as she acquires 

 the odor conunon to the bee. 



It should also be noted that the cage plan 

 will not work here under the above condi- 

 tions, no matter how long the queen is kept 

 caged before being released, and that the 

 smoke method is a perfect success. 



One great trouble I have had with queens 

 mailed across the continent is that there are 

 v.evrr enough attendants. It must be borne 

 in mind by the queen-breeders that the 

 tcmpei'atnre is not the same throughout the 

 whole journey, but drops low in coming 

 over the mountains, even in the middle of 

 summer, and for this reason queens mailed 

 to this side of the Rockies should be mailed 

 in double- width cages with from 20 to 30 

 attendants. If there are not enough bees in 

 the cages to keep up the heat when passing 

 through a cold atmosphere the queen will 

 invariably be chilled, which will impair 

 both her usefulness and longevity. Even if 

 she does survive, and commences to lay, she 

 may be superseded almost immediately. It 

 goes without saying, that such queens are 

 an unprofitable investment for the beekeep- 

 er. Such are the results here. Is it again 

 a question of locality? 



Dewdney, B. C. 



HOW TO HANDLE COMBS AFTER EXTRACTING 



BY E. S. MILES 



One reason why beekeeping is interesting 

 is that there is continually something new 

 turning up. Many of the problems are easy. 

 With a little thought and a little experi- 

 iiientins" we come to the "know how." The 

 problem indicated by the title is tlie one 

 bothering me now. In order to help any 

 one to avoid offering a way already tried, I 

 shall describe those I have attempted. 

 What works well with one ]»erson in one 

 place, by the way, will sometimes not work 

 out the same with another person in a dif- 

 ferent place. Wiiat one pei-son would con- 



sider a success, another would not be satis- 

 fied with. 



In saying " after extracting," I mean 

 after the last extiacting for the season; for 

 here this takes place in August unless we 

 have a fall flow, which has not been fre- 

 quent of late years. 



I have done as follows: 



1. Piled them up in the honey-house and 

 let them stand until the next season. 



2. Set them outdoors for the bees to 

 clean up. 



.'!. Set tlieiti hack on the lighter colonies. 



