THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



83 



Pjusihle queenless colonies. 



Now, I run vvoiideriiio; wlietlier any 

 of the veteiuns could, by noticing the 

 appearance of the bees, at the en- 

 trances, tell me whether I have any 

 queenless colonies? 



Certain]}', bees are plentiful enough 

 at every entrance and active enough 

 at every entrance. I am conscious of a 

 feeling of envy towards Mr. Demaree 

 and others who can thus determine 

 also when colonies are short of stores. 



Introducing queens. 



Speaking of queenless colonies, 

 some one has asked me to give, for the 

 benefit of novices, a method of inti'o- 

 ducing queens. The first requisite to 

 the following plan is a tight-fitting, 

 wire-clotli " honey- board." 



After removing the old queen to- 

 gether with all uncapped brood — ev- 

 ery egg — from the brood-chamber, the 

 wire-cloth " iioney-board" is fitted 

 tightly above it, and on this is placed 

 an ui)per story containing the new 

 queen and several frames of hatching 

 brood. After several days, the bees 

 are allowed a small opening in the 

 wire-cloth, through which they, by de- 

 grees, make their way into the U|)per 

 story. Of course, if the weather is 

 cold, the upper story, containing 

 queen and hatching brood, is first kept 

 in the house, for a few da^s, closed 

 tightly. 



Sheboygan Falls, Wis. 



Number Nine. 



Z. T. HAWK. 



A^n old hut snfp. ivaif to introduce (/itpenit — 



Introdurinf/ a new queen at the time the 



old one is removed. — Htnv to make 



an introduction cage. 



My first experience in introducing 

 queens was with the Peet cage and 

 with what is usually called the Peet 

 process. I used tiiis method several 

 years, but by degrees abandoned it 

 for others simpler and more conve- 

 nient. The cage I use is a cylinder 

 of wire cloth about four inches long 

 and three-fourths of an inch in diame- 



ter, closed at one end by folding the 

 wire cloth, at the other by a wooden 

 plug having a five-sixteenths inch 

 hole through it. After placing the 

 queen in tliis cage, the hole is pushed 

 full of Good's candy and the queen is 

 ready for introduction. I usually re- 

 move the old queen and introduce the 

 new at one operation. The cage is 

 laid on top of the frames and receives 

 no further attention until the third 

 or fourth day when I look to see if 

 the queen has been released. This 

 examination is made vvith as little 

 disturbance to the bees as possible. 

 No frames are removed and barely 

 smoke enough is used to keep the 

 bees from becoming angry. If the 

 cage is found empty, as it ought to 

 be at the end of the third day, it is re- 

 moved and the hive closed. The 

 ground near the entrance of the hive 

 is given a glance and if no dead queen 

 is seen it is taken for granted tliat 

 all is well. In the course of two or 

 three days the hive is quietly opened 

 and the combs examined for the 

 queen, or for eggs. 



This method is old but none the 

 less practical. It is not claimed to 

 be infallible, but it is next thing to 

 it. For eight years I have used it 

 constantly, not introducing hundreds 

 of queens, as is done at the Bay 

 State Ai)iaries, but doing all the 

 necessary work of this character in 

 an apiary of from twenty to forty col- 

 onies, and iiave never lost a queen. 



If bees are busy and a colony is 

 found to be queenless, the shortest 

 way, and one that is comparatively 

 safe, is to lift a comb containing a 

 laying queen and plenty of bees from 

 a nucleus and place it at once into 

 the hive containing the queenless 

 colon3^ Bees and queen will usually 

 be received without hostile demon- 

 stration, but if the queen is valuable 

 and 3'ou want to run no risks, confine 

 her on the comb with a cage made by 

 tin-ning down a little more than half 

 an inch on each edge of a piece of 

 wire cloth four inches square. Press 



