OR, MANUAI, OF THE APIARY. 311 



ony, we have only to procure and introduce an Italian queen. 

 The same, of course, is true of Cyprianizing- or Syrianizing. If 

 we change the queen we soon change the bees. 



HOW TO INTRODUCK A QUBEN. 



In dividing colonies, where we give our queen to a colony 

 composed wholly of young bees, it is safe and easy to intro- 

 duce a queen in the manner explained in the section on arti- 

 ficial increase of colonies. To introduce a queen to a colony 

 composed of old bees requires more care. First, we should 

 seek out the old queen and destroy her, then cage our Italian 

 queen in a wire cage (Fig. 141), which may be made by wind- 



FiG. 141. 



Queen-Gage. — From A. I, Root Co. 



ing a strip of wire-cloth, three and one-half inches wide, and 

 containing fifteen to twenty meshes to the inch, about the 

 finger. I^et it lap each way one-half inch, then cut it off. 

 Ravel out the half-inch on each side, and weave in the ends of 

 the wires, forming a tube the size of the finger. We now have 

 only to put the queen in the tube and pinch the ends together, 

 and the queen is caged. The cage containing the queen should 

 be inserted between two adjacent combs containing honey, 

 each of which will touch it. The queen can thus sip honey as 

 she needs it. If we fear the queen may not be able to sip the 

 honey through the meshes of the wire, we may dip a piece of 

 clean sponge in honey and insert it in the upper end of the 

 cage before we compress this end. This will furnish the 

 queen with the needed food. In forty-eight hours we again 

 open the hive, after a thorough smoking, and also the cage, 

 which is easily done by pressing the upper end at right angles 

 to the direction of the pressure when we closed it. In doing 



