THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



249 



is nearly impossible to find any queen 

 of any race. 



Having' the hive opened, remove the 

 comb next to the side of the hive near- 

 est you first, and sit on the east side 

 of the hive during' the forenoon, and 

 the west side during' the afternoon, 

 thus allowing' the sunlight to strike the 

 side ot the combs next to the operator. 

 As soon as the first comb is examined, 

 set it in a box or empty hive, placing' 

 the same on the side farthest froin you. 

 On removing- the second comb from the 

 liive, g-lance down upon the side of the 

 :omb in the hive which was next to the 

 ane you have now raised, before you 

 look at the one you ha"e now in your 

 hands. If the queen is on that side of 

 the comb, she will immediately, upon 

 the strong' sunlight striking' her, com- 

 mence to run around the comb to g'et out 

 3f the light. If you do not see her at 

 ance (which you will be apt to do if 

 she is there, as the strong- lig'ht strik- 

 ing' against the side of the abdomen as 

 she is running', will arrest your atten- 

 tion as nothing- else would), then look 

 3n the side of the comb you hold in 

 your hand that is the farthest from you, 

 as the queen is sure to be on one of the 

 iark sides of the combs. If she is not 

 seen here, set this comb in the box up 

 against the one that you put in first. 



Proceed in this manner until the 

 frames are taken from the hive and 

 placed in the box, unless you find the 

 the queen sooner. If not found, pro- 

 ceed to look in any corner of the hive 

 wherever you see little clusters of 

 bees, for if the queen is very shy she 

 nay leave the combs and run down into 

 :he corners of the hive. Not finding' 

 :he queen in the hive proceed to take 

 :he combs from the box in the same 

 )rder you took them from the hive, and 

 glance the combs over in the same 

 vaj', and in nine cases out of ten any 

 me should find an3' queen before the 

 ;ombs are all back in the hive again, 

 ;ven if the colony is composed of black 

 )ees in their puritj', and the operator 

 s only a novice. 



As noted at the beg'inning', care at 

 he start so as not to stampede the 

 )ees, is the g'reat secret of success, and 

 his coupled with a strong lig'ht and a 

 nowledg'e of how any queen behaves 

 nder such conditions, gives you the 

 ey to the whole matter. 

 As Mr. Doolittle well-says, the time 

 f the day when the work is done has 

 inch to do with the success of the 

 ndertaking. Many times this sum- 



mer, when looking for queens in the 

 middle of the day, I have been struck 

 with the almost deserted appearance of 

 the combs. At least four-fifths of the 

 bees were in the fields. Still further, 

 the majority of the bees remaining in 

 the hive were young bees that are less 

 inclined to run about, take wing, and 

 make a disturbance. 



Too much stress can not be placed 

 upon the importance of opening the 

 hive carefully, and with the use of as 

 little smoke as possible. So long as 

 the bees will remain quietly, and 

 evenly distributed over the combs, the 

 search for the queen can be hope- 

 fully continued, but once they are 

 "stampeded," begin to run belter 

 skelter, gather in bunches, and upon 

 the sides of the hive, there is onlj' 

 about one chance in 100 that the queen 

 will be found. 



Then there is the point of glancing 

 at the side of the outside comb left in 

 the hive, just as soon as a comb is re- 

 moved, and not waiting to first examine 

 the comb that has been removed. If 

 the queen is on the outside of the next 

 comb to be removed, and we wait to 

 examine the comb just taken out before 

 we give this glance at the next comb, it 

 is just as Bro. Doolittle says, she has 

 scurried around out of sight before we 

 get around to took at this next comb. 

 I presume I have hunted up more than 

 200 queens this season, in full colonies, 

 and I think it is safe to say that half 

 of them were found in giving this glance 

 quickly at the next comb in the hive. 



If care is taken not to disturb the 

 bees and get them to running, there is 

 very little likelihood of the queen leav- 

 ing the brood combs, hence, in this 

 case, there is no use wasting time in 

 examining frames of honey. The same 

 might be said in a certain degree, re- 

 garding' combs filled solid full of brood. 

 As a rule you will find the queen on a 

 comb, or that portion of a comb, from 

 which the bees have recently emerged. 



If you have Italian bees, know when 



