2G4 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



A queen may be introduced in a No. 2 provisioned 

 cage, the cage being nailed directly over the brood, as in 

 Fig. 93, or she may be introduced in a No. 3 cage let 

 down between the combs or thrust into the entrance as 



Fig. 8g. — Comb for Queen-Cells, Triimiied. 



already described. Often, however, when it is con- 

 venient, I take from a nucleus the frame on which the 

 queen is found, and put frame and all in the queenless 

 hive. If this is done at a time when honey is yielding, 

 there is little or no danger, provided the colony has been 

 queenless long enough to be fully conscious of its queen- 

 lessness. Indeed, I have introduced many a queen during 

 the harvest into a colony conscious of its queenlessness, by 

 merely taking out a frame of brood and dropping the 

 queen among the bees on the middle of the comb. If I 

 wish to run no risk whatever, as in the case of a valuable 

 imported queen, I put in a hive without any bees several 

 frames with no unsealed brood, but with plenty of sealed 



