Nov. 1, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



697 



Introducing Queens With Tobacco-Smoke. 



I)V IIKNKV AI.l.KV. 



I HAVE read the thousand-and-one methods given in the 

 bee-papers for introducing' queens, and none of them, it 

 seems to me, are at all practical. They all require too 

 much work and trouble, and, so far as I know, none of them 

 are reliable. 



I never have practiced but one method for introducing- 

 either fertile or unfertile queens, and it is always attended 

 with the best of success. 



To be successful in introducing a queen, a colony must 

 be put in shape to realize thoroly their queenless condi- 

 tion, and this can best be done by letting the bees remain 

 queenless 72 hours. This applies to colonies to which either 

 fertile or unfertile queens are to be introduced. At the end 

 of three days cells will be started, but not capt, and then is 

 just the right time to introduce a queen and make it a 

 success. 



When a queen is received, do not put the cage near the 

 colon}' to which the queen is to be introduced. This is a 

 bad practice and a mistake a good many beekeepers make. 

 When a colony has been queenless three days, place the 

 cage over the frames in such a way that the bees in the 

 hive can have access to the food in the cage, and in the 

 course of a few hours the food will be removed, and every- 

 thing being so quiet the queen walks out and takes com- 

 mand of the colony, and all goes on well. 



Now, to make the introduction doubly sure, just blow a 

 quantity of tobacco-smoke in at the entrance of the hive — 

 enough smoke so that all the bees will feel it. The best 

 time to do this, and to introduce a queen, is just before 

 dark. 



Now, I can not use tobacco as a good many peaple can : 

 that is, I can not smoke a cigar nor pipe, and so I was 

 obliged to perfect some arrangement whereby I can fumi- 

 gate the bees with tobacco, so I made a tin pipe in this way: 



The body of the pipe is made of tin yn inch in diam- 

 eter, and about 5 inches long ; then a wood stopper at each 

 end. A hole is made thru each stopper, and the one placed 

 in the mouth is shaped to fit the mouth. The stopper at the 

 other end has a small tin tube run thru it so that the smoke 

 can be directed to any particular point. The pipe is held 

 between the teeth, and the hands are then at liberty. Fill 

 the pipe with fine, cheap tobacco — tobacco such as cheap 

 cigars are made from is strong enough for bees, while the 

 common tobacco used for chewing and smoking in clay 

 pipes is too strong. 



If too much smoke is given, and the bees commence to 

 tumble out at the entrance, throw some grass on the alight- 

 ing-board, but not enough to stop ventilation. 



All my queens are reared in full colonies, and are 

 hatcht in nursery-cages, and then the queens are introduced 

 to nuclei in hives having four combs and frames 4x5 inches. 

 These little colonies build up strong — so strong, in fact, 

 that on hot days I will have nearly 200 of them with the 

 bees clustered on the outside, and it is a handsome sight to 

 look upon. "^^ 



Each of these hives has a hole in the top, or cover, thru 

 which the feed is given the bees. When I have 30 or SO 

 virgin queens to introduce, I place as many cages with 

 queens in them in a box, and then get a plantain leaf for 

 each hive. I then stop the entrance with the leaf, and blow 

 a quantity of tobacco-smoke into the hive thru the hole in 

 the top, and quickly shake the queen from the cage into the 

 top of the hive. It does not require over 30 minutes to in- 

 troduce SO queens, and, what is the best part of it, I never 

 lose a queen. 



Fertile queens can be introduced in the same way ; that 

 is, they can be shaken out of the cage just as soon as the 

 colony has been smoked. I gave the first method, as it will 

 better suit most people. 



Now, if any reader of this knows of a better and more 

 expeditious way of introducing queen-bees safely, by all 

 means tell us of it. Essex Co., Mass. 



Belgian Hare Breeding is the title of a pamphlet just 

 publisht, containing 10 chapters on " Breeding the Belgian 

 Hare." Price, 2S cents, postpaid. It covers the subjects of 

 Breeding, Feeding, Houses and Hutches, Diseases, Methods 

 of Serving for the Table, etc. It is a practical and helpful 

 treatise for the amateur breeder. (See Mr. Schmidt's article 

 on page 680.) For sale at the office of the American Bee 

 Journal. For SI. 10 we will send the Bee Journal for a year 

 and the 32-page pamphlet on " Belgian Hare Breeding." 



!(i<i.i^i4Kj<^i^i*Ki^*t.*Vi^KO«iK*4.;i;.i^*4.*ij^*4«M! 



% Tlie Afterthought. 





The " Old Reliable " seen thru New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



FINE SALT TO KILL DRONB-BROOD. 



Fine salt to kill unsealed drone-brood. Ah, that's a 

 kink I had failed hitherto to get. Dr. Miller, page S22— and 

 see also editorial, page 547. 



KINKS ON MOVING BEES. 



When you move the bees with straw for a spring set 

 the hives on a false rack of slats put on top of the straw. 

 Quite an improvement, evidently. If during the journey 

 the bees of a colony, or a few colonies, jam the entrances 

 and begin to squeal, that's the time to save their lives by 

 setting them off beside the road, and giving them liberty. 

 A mixt bushel of melted wax, honey and bees would be more 

 valuable in a tub than in a bee-hive — and not very valuable 

 even in a tub. Let the bees live, and come for them another 

 eve'. Page S85. 



THAT HYPHEN SQUABBLE — WHEN DOCTOR'S DISAGREE, ETC. 



It is taking me in a weak spot to ask me to adjust the 

 hyphen quarrel (or should that be hyphen-quarrel ?), so in 

 what I may say please do not consider me as a judge decid- 

 ing a case, but only as the Afterthinker, making his com- 

 ments as usual. I say, let the doctors disagree peaceably. 

 If you don't, they'll disagree anyhow, and non-peaceably. 

 It should not be forgotten that the rules of the grammarians 

 have been often at war with the invincible usage (the really 

 correct usage) of the rank and file of good writers; so to 

 show that a thing is rulable does not always settle matters. 

 Now, in regard to the phrase immediately in hand, as the 

 Bible says sweet cinnamon and not sweet-cinnamon, sweet 

 calamus and not sweet-calamus, sweet cane and not sweet- 

 cane, the usage sweet clover, when clover is a noun, seems 

 to be well supported, certainly. Exodus 30:23, Jeremiah 

 6:20. (It should be rem.arkt that the Bible runs very light 

 on hyphens, and mostly uses consolidations in the place of 

 them, freewill in the place of free-will ; but these plant 

 names in which "sweet" figures are not consolidated.) The 

 original criticism of Mr. Root, if allowed at all, would lie 

 against all these cases, it seems to me. Furthermore, to 

 say in the same article " I saw some sweet clover " (without 

 hyphen), and " I saw some sweet-clover plants " (with the 

 hyphen), impresses me as too fine a distinction. Don't be- 

 lieve the English language will, ^^-a. finality, settle things 

 so. Still, from a strictly grammarian point of view, it may 

 be all right to let an adjective and noun, with slight pecu- 

 liar relations, run loose, and tie them together when they 

 shift character into a feebly-compounded compound adjec- 

 tive. So, if I was to decideat all, I should decide that Mr. 

 York should have been allowed to keep on his own way, 

 and Mr. Wallace Root should have kept on his, without 

 making any attack. Pages 658 and 628. 



Earth enters the new century with pretty much every 

 doctrine it holds in a state of flux. I'm glad it is so. It is 

 too soon, I think, to browbeat either the man who uses 

 many hyphens, or the man who uses few hyphens. Same 

 of the other points. The Bible (magnificently punctuated, 

 somebody has said) is heavy with colons, and with commas 

 put in pretty much every place where one could imaginably 

 be stuck. Yet very many present-day writers punctuate 

 much lighter, seldom using the colon at all, and using 

 scarce half the com mas the scholars of 1611 would have used. 

 It's too soon to try to put down either the heavy system or 

 the light system. " Let every man be fully persuaded in 

 his own mind "—if he can. My feeling is that excess of 

 hyphens gives one's page a look of fussiness that had best 

 be avoided— some body and somebody both of them better 

 taste than some-body.' But for a century or so yet I'll con- 

 sent to tolerate either bee hive or bee-hive or beehive. Still 

 you must let me keep my own thought, to-wit, that the pop- 

 ping in of a hyphen wherever an acute mind can discern 

 some sort of special relations between two words — I don't 

 believe those who are moving that way realize how far the 

 principle is going to take them. 



While a combination is somewhat unfamiliar the 

 hyphen should be retained, of course ; but, if I am right, 

 there is a steady current of language on which familiar 



