Published Monthly by the W. T. ralconer Manfg Co. 



VoL VIIL 



AUGUST, J898. 



No. 8. 



How to Introduce a Valuable 

 Queen Safely. 



Written for The American Bee-Keeper. 



BY G. M. DCOI.ITTLK. 



^iS) CORRESPONDENT writes me 

 'w;|/(y\'(d' that he has iust lost a very valu- 

 ^^■'~' able queen in trying to intro- 

 duce her, one for which he paid $5.00, 

 and he feels so badly over the matter 

 that for the time present, bee-keeping 

 has nearly "lost its charms."' He 

 closes his letter with these words: "Is 

 there any really safe plan for the intro- 

 duction of queens? If so, will you 

 tell us what it is and how to proceed, 

 in The American Bee-Keeper?" 



The safe introduction of queens is a 

 subject upon which much has been 

 written and many plans have been de- 

 vised to accomplish this object, but as 

 the most of them fail to bring about the 

 desired results, it may be well to write 

 a few words on this subject, on which 

 so much has been written that it would 

 seem almost "thread-bare." For the 

 introduction of all queens, except those 

 of special value, I follow the directions 

 which accompany nearly every queen 

 now sent through the mails, which is 

 that of allowing the bees of the queen- 

 less colony to eat the food which is 

 stored in the cage, as provisions for its 

 occupants while in transit, by opening 

 a small hole in the end of the cage so 

 the bees of the colony can have access 



to it. This eating of the food will re- 

 quire two or three days, and during 

 this time the colony is becoming ac- 

 quainted with their future mother 

 through the wire-cloth which fastens 

 the queen and her attendants in the 

 cage, the wire-cloth side of the cage 

 being so placed that the bees from the 

 colony can have free access to it. Then, 

 when the candy is eaten out, the queen 

 need not go among the bees until she 

 and those which come into the cage get 

 thoroughly acquainted, and, as she 

 goes out at her leisure, there is none of 

 the excitement which generally ac- 

 companies any mode of direct introduc- 

 tion. With this plan I do not lose more 

 than one queen in fifty introduced: but 

 as I do not want to take that one-fiftieth 

 chance on a queen which bids fair to be 

 of great value to me, years ago I 

 studied out the following plan, which I 

 have used for over fifteen years, and 

 have never lost one single queen with 

 it. I probably should have been con- 

 tent to have used this nearly perfect 

 plan, as sent out by queen breeders, 

 had it not been, that in some way or 

 other, that when a loss did occur, it 

 was quite apt to fall on a most valuable 

 queen coming from a long distance at 

 a great expense, so that the loss was 

 more keenly felt, as was the case with 

 the correspondent. 

 From nearly the first year of my bee- 



