S48 



October, 1914. 



American Hee Journal 



W. S. Pangburn and His Se\ en YearOi.d Son in the Apiary 



to prepare alien queens for a safe re- 

 ception by a queenless colony. The 

 knowledge that the acts of bees within 

 the hive are guided chiefly by the sense 

 of smell, has led to the almost universal 

 opinion that odor is the basic principle 

 in queen introduction. The theory is 

 that each colony has its peculiar odor 

 by which individual members are rec- 

 ognized and distinguished from indi- 

 viduals of other colonies. 



THE TRANSMISSION OF ODOR. 



This theory induced experimenters 

 to search for some economical method 

 of transmitting the colony odor to 

 queens. This led to the discovery of 



two methods of odor transmission, the 

 smoke method and the cage method, 

 both of which were described in Doo- 

 little's book on queen-rearing, pub- 

 lished more than a quarter century 

 ago, and both are in vogue at the 



present time [See pages 75 and 76 of 



" Doolittle's Queen-Rearing." — Ed.] 



THE cage METHOD. 



The cage method is very simple, and 

 yet close observation concerning the 

 attitude and behavior of bees toward a 

 caged queen is essential to success 

 with this method. It consists of sus- 

 pending the cage containing the queen 

 over a space between the combs, ex- 



Pangburn's Steam Oltfit for Lhjuefying Honey 



posing the wire-cloth side to the bees, 

 leaving it there until the caged queen 

 shall have acquired the colony odor, 

 after which she will be accepted with- 

 out pai ley. Perfect success is assured 

 by this method only when the queen 

 remains caged until the colony odor is 

 acquired; thousands of queens are 

 sacrificed every season because ignor- 

 ant beekeepers, unmindful of the hos- 

 tile attitude toward the caged queen, 

 allow them to eat out the candy and 

 release her before the odor is trans- 

 mitted; an operation that requires 

 more time with different queens. 



When friendly relations are estab- 

 lished by the transmission of odor, a 

 radical change takes place, and instead 

 of hostile demonstrations she now re- 

 ceives affectionate caresses, and will 

 be welcomed with eagerness. This 

 change in the attitude of bees toward 

 a caged queen is unerringly manifest 

 to the practiced eye of the student of 

 bee-nature, and he will keep her caged 

 until the change occurs, and will sel- 

 dom lose a queen. 



Daily examination is necessary. If 

 they are clustered thickly on the cage, 

 biting the wire-cloth, and exhibiting a 

 general attitude of anger and resent- 

 ment, return the cage and repeat the 

 operation daily until the bees cease to 

 take any notice of the intruder ; when 

 this change comes, it is safe to release 

 the queen. We remove most of the 

 candy and allow the bees to do the rest. 



Approximately 80 percent of queens 

 will be accepted within 48 hours, and 

 the remainder will range from that 

 time up to a week or more; hence 20 

 percent of the queens are sacrificed by 

 permitting the bees to eat the candy 

 and release them before the colony 

 odor is acquired. If these instructions 

 are rigidly observed, there is little ex- 

 cuse for losing a queen by the cage 

 method, for I doubt if there ever was a 

 queen that could not be successfully 

 introduced by this meth id if sufficient 

 time is allowed for the transmission of 

 odor. 

 smoke method of odor transmission 



During the past quarter century, va- 

 rious methods have been in vogue by 

 which odor is transmitted through the 

 agency of smoke. Some Iiave accom- 

 plished it by blowing smoke into the 

 entrance, accompanied by diumming 

 on the hives, thus causing the bees to 

 roar in distress and fright; the queen 

 is then run in, followed by a few more 

 puffs of smoke. Others omit the drum- 

 ming, and depend upon smoke exclu- 

 sively, using more of it, and closing the 

 hive for a few minutes; while others 

 have been equally successful in the 

 moderate use of tobacco smoke. This 

 is perhaps the most effective, having 

 an odor so pungent that little is re- 

 quired for the transmission of it. While 

 the basic principle is the same, the two 

 methods are widely different, for in the 

 latter the colony odor is transmitted 

 to the entire contents of the hive, in- 

 cluding the alien queen. The smoke 

 odor is transmitted in live minutes, 

 while several days are sometimes re- 

 quired to transmit the colony odor to 

 a caged queen. 



There are two important factors in- 

 volved in the smoke method, the rapid 

 unifying of odors within the hive, and 



