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look for tlie Queen that I wish to remove ; having found 

 her, she is Ivilled or otherwise taken care of, and this hive 

 is also closed. 1 next blow in at the entrance enough 

 smoke to alai"m the whole colony, pounding with m}- fist on 

 top of the hive until I hear a loud roaring inside, which 

 shows that the bees are filling themselves with honey. I 

 now let the Queen that I have in the cage, run in at the 

 entrance, smoking her as she goes in, while I still keep 

 pounding on the hive. lu doing this, nothing but wood 

 smoke should be used, for if tobacco-smoke were used, 

 many of the bees would be suSbcated. 



If this is done when there is danger of robbing, I wait 

 till just at night, about the operation. If moi'e convenient, 

 the Queen can be taken out of the hive at any time during 

 the day, and the operation of putting in the new Queen 

 done just at night. Some seem to think that the operation 

 will be more successful if done in this way, but so far I fail 

 to see any difterence as to results. The idea is to cause the 

 bees to fill themselves with honey, at the same time smok- 

 ing them so that the Queen and bees smell alike. This plan 

 is as free from loss as the other, still it is not quite so simple 

 as the first — I only adopt it where it is not handy to use the 

 former. 



Where any •colony has been queenless from three to five 

 days, a Queen can generally be successfully introduced by 

 dropping her in honey, and rolling her over in the same, 

 till she is thoroughly daubed with it, when the cover to the 

 hive is lifted, and the Queen dropped from a spoon right 

 down among the bees. This is equally successful with the 

 others, but I do not like the plan, on account of having to 

 keep the colony queenless so long. Even a Queen from a 

 distance, can generally be safely introduced by this plan. 



To introduce a Queen that has come to me from abroad, 

 or one which I consider of more than ordinary value from 

 my own apiary, I proceed as follows : First, I take the 

 cage containg the Queen and her escort of bees, to the little 

 room where I handle queen-cells, and open the cage before 

 the window, so that if the Queen takes wing, she will not be 

 lost. I then catch the Queen and clip her wings (as given 

 in the chapter on that subject), when she is placed in a 

 routid, wire-cloth cage ; but I allow none of her escort to 

 go with her, as I consider such bees when left with a Queen 

 one of the prime causes of the Jiiany losses which occur to 

 the purchaser of Queens. 



Having the Queen's wings clipped, and in the cage, I next 

 take a piece of wire-cloth, containing 14 or 16 meshes to 

 the inch, and cut it four-and-one-half by eight-and-oue-half 

 inches in size. Now cut a piece three-fourths of any inch 

 square out of each corner, and bend the four sides at right 

 angles, so as to make a box, as it were, three inches wide 

 by seven inches long, and three-fourths of an inch deep. 

 Next, unravel the edges down one-half way, so that the 

 points can be pressed into the combs, and if the corners do 

 not stay together as they should, they can be sowed together 

 with one of the wires which were unraveled [Fig.5,page 50]. 



Having the cage ready, and the Queen to be introduced, 

 in your pocket, proceed to look for the Queen to be replaced, 

 and after removing her, examine the combs until you find 

 one from which the bees are just hatching, or where you 

 can see them gnawing at the cappings of the cells, wliich 

 comb should also have some honey along the top-bar of the 

 frame aljovc the hatching brood. 



Now sliake and brush every bee oft" this comb, and place 

 the Queen that you have in your pocket on it, by putting 

 tlie open end of the cage near the comb over some cells of 

 unsealed honey, when she will go to the comb, and as soon 

 as she comes to the honey, she will begin eating. While 

 she is <loiiig this, put the large cage over her and the hatch- 

 ing brood, as you wish, taking all of the time that is needed, 

 for as long as she continues eating, she will not go away, 

 nor be disturbed by any of your motions. 



Having honey in the cage is necessary, for the bees out- 

 side of the cage cannot be depended upon to feed a Queen 

 when she is being introduced. Some claim that if the cage 

 is made of wire-cloth having large meshes, the bees will 

 feed them ; but after losing many Queens by depending 

 upon the bees to care for them, I say always provision your 

 introducing-cage in some waj', so that the Queen is not 

 dependent upon the bees for her food while in the cage. 



Even when keeping Queens in the queen-nursei"y, where 

 placed in queenless colonies, I find that the bees often 

 refuse to feed them ; so I now provision all cages of all 

 kinds, notwithstanding the claim put forth by some of our 

 best bee-keepers, that several caged fertile Queens will be 

 fed by a colony having a laying Queen, if they are put 

 between the combs in a hive having such, for safe keeping. 

 Finding a whole queen-nursery full of dead Queens, after 

 trusting them to the care of a colonj- of bees having a laying 

 Queen, is generally more convincing than many words 

 given in support of an untruthful theorj'. 



But to return : Fit the cage so that it comes over three 

 or four squai-e inches of honey, and as much of the hatching 

 brood as possible ; for these hatching bees have much to do 

 with the speedy introduction of the Queen. Having all 

 fixed, leaved the hive from 12 to 48 hours, according as 

 your other work will allow j'ou, when the hive is to be 

 opened, and the cage examined. 



If all has worked as it usually does, the bees will be found 

 spread out evenlj' over the cage, the same as they are on 

 any of the rest of the combs. When such is the case, the 

 cage is to be carefully lifted from over the Queen, letting 

 her and the young bees that have hatched during her con- 

 finement, go where they please, keeping watch all the while 

 to see that the bees treat her kindly ; if they do this (as they 

 will, nineteen times out of twenty), the comb is to be placed 

 in the hive ; if not, she is caged again. In from one -half to 

 one hour after liberating her, look at the Queen again, and 

 if she is now treated as their old' Queen was before her i 

 removal, the hive is closed, and she is considered safely ' 

 introduced. 



If, on the contrary, the bees are found clustered thickly 

 on the cage, biting the wire-cloth and showing signs of 

 anger, the frame is to be placed back in the hive and left 

 till the next day, when, if they still show the same symp- 

 toms, you must wait until they are scattered, over the cage, 

 as spoken of at first, before letting her out. 



I often release a Queen in 12 hours, and find that she is 

 all right ; and I rarely have to wait to let her out, more than 

 24 hours. Still, in extreme cases, I have been obliged to 

 keep them caged uearlj' or quite ten dajs. 



Do not be afraid of the Queen dying in the cage ; for if 

 .she is placed over honey, as I have advised, she will live 

 a month, and there is no need of losing any Queen if there 

 is not too much haste used, in letting her out. Even then, 

 there should be no danger, if the apiarist is on hand to 

 release the Queen from the bees which cluster (or ball) her, 

 as they always do a Queen for sometime before they kill 

 her. Such clustered Queens can easily be released, b}' 

 smoking the bees till they free her. 



In liberating a Queen from a "ball" of infuriated bees, 

 she is liable to take wing and fly away, thus losing her in 

 that way. To guard against this. I either clip her wings 

 before trying to introduce her, or take the " ball " of bees 

 into a room while smoking them apart. Again, there is 

 some danger that after the Queen is free, a bee from the 

 cluster will sting lier, if this bee gets to the Queen singly ; 

 and for this reason, I always secure the Queen in a wire- 

 cloth cage as soon as the last bee has let go of her. 



If the bees of any hive have once clustered a Queen, I 

 find that it is very hard work to get them to accept the same 

 one afterward ; for this reason, I generally take a Queen 

 that has been clustered, to some other hive and introduce 



