THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



79 



their hive, but tliey are keener to 

 scent any such change. Hence to 

 introduce a queen successfully, we 

 must study hard to do it in such a 

 way that the bees will not detect it. 

 Derange the affairs of the colony as 

 little, and keep the bees as much in 

 ignorance of whatever derangement 

 is made as possible. Anything out of 

 the ordinary course, where the queen 

 is concerned, arouses suspicion in their 

 little minds and the recognition of 

 outside agency especially awakens 

 distrust. Reports have been pub- 

 lished of queens being superseded 

 whose wings had been clipped. I 

 believe such a thing is very possible. 

 But the most essential item is for the 

 queen to feel thoroughly at home. A 

 queen in a strange hive cannot do 

 this. Everything is foreign to her. 

 She feels tliat she does not belong 

 there and can but show that she feels 

 it. In the mind of the bee there can 

 be no stronger evidence of an inter- 

 loper. This outside agency I have 

 mentioned, is the next l)est evidence ; 

 and this is the very state of things we 

 are apt to have when we turn a queen 

 loose on a comb. 



How then shall we get the right 

 conditions to introduce a queen? 

 Allow the bees to do the introduc- 

 ing themselves. Let them release 

 the imprisoned queen. There you 

 have, in my opinion, the great seciet 

 of successful introduction. If your 

 queen comes in a Peet cage, drive the 

 tin points through the comb, press 

 the side on which is the tin slide 

 against it, and gently remove the 

 slide. The bees will work their way 

 through the comb into the cage. If 

 in a cage with only one open side 

 covered with wire cloth, fold' back the 

 cloth covering the apartments con- 

 taining the candy, and insert the cage 

 between two combs with the open 

 side toward the centre of the brood 

 nest. If you want to, cut out a piece 

 of comb and insert the cage in the 

 frame. In an}' case shut up the hive 

 and let it severely alone. The bees 



proceed to eat the candy or gnaw 

 the comb as the case ma^' be. As to 

 how the cage and its occupants got 

 there is forgotten in the operation. 

 Wliile the process goes ou, the bees 

 in and out of the cage are becoming- 

 acquainted. A little orifice is made, 

 they touch noses, the orifice grows 

 larger, a bee passes in, another comes 

 out. Soon they are moving back 

 and forth, in and out. Very likely 

 there ma}' be a lingering suspicion 

 that all is not right, that thaf woinan 

 does not belong there; but if left 

 undisturbed it will pass off. There 

 may be something in the i)revailing 

 notion that the queen and attendants 

 acquire the scent of the colony, but I 

 more than doubt it. Be that as it 

 may, to open the hive at this juncture 

 would probably frighten the queen, 

 heighten any hu'king doubt or dis- 

 trust on the part of the bees, and 

 spoil it all. I prefer not to look into 

 the hive for at least four or five days 

 after putting in the queen. I believe 

 that the balling of queens one or 

 more days after being released is 

 always due to some such distiu'bance. 

 I have never failed to get a queen ac- 

 cepted by this method, and I believe 

 it to be the best and safest way for a 

 novice to introduce. I lost a queen 

 last summer soon after she got to 

 laying, after I had examined and 

 founcl her all right. Another time I 

 found the bees pursnina; and clinsino; 

 to a queen, with evident intents to 

 ball her, about twenty minutes after 

 I had first found her. I smoked the 

 bees, caught the queen, uncapped a 

 little honey and placed her majesty 

 upon the dauby spot and left her to 

 wade out if slie could. She is alive 

 and laying now. I have introduced 

 a queen from my own apiary to a 

 colony that had come out of winter 

 queenless. I have also removed the 

 queen at different lengths of time 

 before introducing. But I advise 

 the novice not to take out the old 

 queen until he is ready to put in the 

 new one. 



