THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



201 



awhile, and then turned drone-layer. 

 Another layed a little while, and then 

 turned up missing-. None of them have 

 proved good, prolific layers. Young- 

 queens, of this year's rearing, sent as 

 soon as thej' had commenced laying-, 

 turned out all right. Still further, I 

 boug-ht nearly a dozen full colonies 

 having tested queens at least one year 

 old, and some are, probably, older, 

 and these queens, never having been 

 out of their hives, are splendid layers. 

 As Mr. Moore says, a choice tested 

 queen ought to be shipped in a full 

 colony or a nucleus. 



INTRODUCTION OF QUEENS. 



Another thing- that we talked about 

 was the introduction of queens. I was 

 quite enthusiastic over the tobacco 

 smoke method. Mr. Moore had tried 

 it, and it worked all right for awhile, 

 then he had some failures. At that 

 time I had had none, and I had been 

 introducing queens to full colonies of 

 hybrids at a time when no honey was 



coming- in. The strange part of it is 

 that I had not one failure until the 

 honey flow came on with extreme heat, 

 when I lost two queens out of a dozen. 

 Another thing: there was a day or two 

 at this time, (it was when the season 

 opened up with a rush) that I could 

 scarcely open a hive without the bees 

 balling- their own queen. The season 

 opened so suddenly that it almost took 

 the bees "oflf their feet." They acted 

 almost as they do when robbing has 

 commenced. At present I am having 

 good success introducing- a queen to a 

 nucleus and then uniting the nucleus 

 with a full colony. Mr. Moore says 

 that he considers the plan of shaking 

 bees into a ventilated box, and leaving 

 them until they begin to "beg" for a 

 queen, then giving them one in a cage 

 from which they can liberate her by 

 eating out the candy, as practically an 

 infallible method. He says he would 

 not hesitate to introduce in this way a 

 queen that was worth $100. 



Flint, Mich., June 22, 1905. 



^=*-^':^==^^l 



'.om" ©Ene mmain Caires for Tlbirteen 

 plairles in Miimiiesotao 



M. V. FAGY. 



I_TOW to handle bees in larg-e nur 



n 



hers, and in various yards, with 



the least help and expense, and the 

 greatest profit, is a question which 

 has, during the last few years, forced 

 itself prominently into the foreground. 



SOME things to AVOID. 



Before answering the above, I wish 

 to admit that I do some things, mostly 

 as a result of the urgent entreaties of 

 friends, that I would not recommend 

 my readers to do; and the first of those 

 is that of allowing my apiaries to be- 



come too great in number. Six hun- 

 dred colonies are about as many as I 

 have handled at one time, yet my yards 

 at times, have run up to about 13 in 

 number; or, at least, double the num- 

 ber they should be; and I have seldom 

 less than 10 under my control. These 

 3'ards are divided into main yards, and 

 those which I run to accommodate 

 others. The latter are small lots of 

 bees belonging to neighbors who may 

 happen to be on roads I travel over in 

 passing from one main yard to another, 

 and if I didn't handle the bees on 



