August. 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



accoptod aftei- bi-iiiii balled and injurod. 

 They will live thru a honey ilow and the 

 colony will produce no surplus. Then the 

 queen is superseded. In the past year, par- 

 ties have reported yields of 200 pounds and 

 upward from the colonies containing the 

 best queens; and from the poorest colonies, 

 nothing. It can be readily seen in that 

 case that the good queens might be worth 

 $50 each and the poor queens nothing. No 

 matter how good a queen originally, if she 

 is injured in introduction she may be a com- 

 plete failure. 



Methods of queen introduction come and 

 go. In fact many of them come and go a 

 good many times. People are making new 

 discoveries and finding sure methods for 

 introducing queens; but if they read back in 

 some early edition of Langstroth, Quinby, 

 or Doolittle, they will find these same meth- 

 ods were used and discarded 30 or 40 years 

 ago. 



In reviewing the older methods and ex 

 perimenting on all the new or so-called new 

 ones, I find but one method which has stood 

 the test as being practically certain, and 

 this is the method known as the "Push-in- 

 the-comb-cage" method. In his book, 

 ' ' Scientific Queen Bearing, ' ' Mr. Doolittle 

 says, ' ' To introduce a queen that has come 

 to me from abroad or one which I consider 

 of more than ordinary value from my own 

 apiary, I proceed as follows"; and he then 

 describes the "Push-in-the-comb-cage. " Mr. 

 Doolittle also states that with this cage 

 ' ' Not one queen in one hundred is balled. ' ' 



Mr. Hutchinson in "Advanced Beekeep- 

 ing, ' ' recommends this method very highly 

 and the " ABC" says, ' ' Reports of this 

 method of introduction have been uniformly 

 favorable." Others who have used the 

 "Push-in-the-comb-cage" give similar re- 

 ports. 



Now the question naturally rises, ' ' Why 

 then is this method not at present universal- 

 ly used?" The answer is not difficult to 

 find. The common "Push-in-the-comb-cage" 

 was merely a screen wire with ends bent 

 down and pushed into the comb, and it had 

 a number of drawbacks which made it un- 

 popular. Sometimes in pressing the cage 

 into the comb, the corners were not bee- 

 tight, in which case the queen came out too 

 soon and was killed. Sometimes this cage 

 would come loose, or drop out of the comb, 

 thus releasing the queen too soon. Some- 

 times the bees would burrow under this wire 

 cage in too short a time; but the greatest 

 drawback of all was the difficulty and in- 

 convenience experienced in getting the 

 queen into this cage. 



The cut illustrates a cage that we have 

 used in our apiary in a modified form for 

 several years and up to date has not a sin- 

 gle failure to its discredit. It is a "Push- 

 in-the-comb-cage" but overcomes the ob- 

 jection to the old "Push-in-the-comb-cage." 

 The saw-teeth which are pushed into the 

 comb are made of heavy tin, with the points 

 one-eighth of an inch apart, and these arc 



made just the length of a worker cell. 

 When this is pressed into the comb, the 

 points of these teeth become firmly embed- 

 ded into the old cocoons in the bottom of 

 the cells, making it impossible for the bees 

 to gnaw their way under this cage. Being 

 made of heavy tin, the teeth cannot get out 

 of alignment, and consequently their func- 

 tioning is certain. 



To get the queen into this cage is a very 

 simple matter. All that is necessary is to 

 remove the perforated tin on the mailing 

 cage, and drop the mailing cage into the 



When introducing, shipping cage is inserted into 

 (Mid of Smith's cage as shown in cut. 



upper part of the introducing cage, when the 

 holes of the two cages come opposite, and 

 the queen and bees immediately run down 

 into the introducing cage on to the combs. 

 If the six-hole cage, as illustrated in the 

 cut, is used it is a perfect fit. If a three- 

 hole cage is used, a small block of wood is 

 inserted to take up the extra space. 



An old black comb should be used as it 

 contains cocoons in the bottom of the cells, 

 so the bees cannot gnaw under. If this can 

 be pushed into the comb over a small patch 

 of brood and honey, the condition is ideal. 

 However, in colonies long queenless or in 

 nuclei very frequently there is no hatching 

 brood, but this seems to work just as well. 

 When the bees and the queen get down on 

 the comb, they at once take the odor of the 

 hive and become a part and parcel of the 

 colony. The colony odor is in the combs. 



While I do not recommend any method as 

 sure with laying w^orkers, yet I have intro- 

 duced a number of queens to laying work- 

 ers with no loss. This method has several 

 other advantages. You can always tell be- 

 fore you release the queen from the cage, 

 whether or not she is accepted; for, if the 

 bees are kindly disposed toward her, they 

 will not attempt to ball her thru the vvtre 

 meshes, but will feed her and she will lay 

 eggs, which can be readily seen thru the 

 wire screen. When this is the case, the 

 cage may be pulled out and the queen re- 

 leased at once. In case this cage is taken 

 out too soon and the bees are inclined to 



