148 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



the cage at the bottom corner of a 

 l)rood frame. Of course a small piece 

 of comb must be cut out to make room 

 for the cage. If the colony the new- 

 queen is to be introduced to has a 

 queen, she is removed and the cage 

 containing the new queen is at once 

 inserted. The liive (not entrance) is 

 then closed and a small amount of to- 

 tobacco smoke is lilown in among the 

 bees and combs. This will odorize tlie 

 entire interior of the hive — bees, 

 queens and all. 



There is more than one advantage 

 in this method of introducing queens. 

 When queens are so introduced the 

 colon}'- never misses their queen ; at 

 any rate, they never show the loss of a 

 queen by any of the usual indications. 

 Another advantage is that all the work 

 is done at'' one time, and the hive is 

 probably not without a queen on the 

 combs over ten hours. The cage is 

 so arranged that the bees eat out the 

 food and release the queen in a few 

 hours. 



Although I fumigate the bees with 

 tobacco smoke, I am not certain that 

 the fumes of rotten-wood would not do 

 as well. All that the fumigating is done 

 for is to give the bees and combs the 

 same odor. Bees, you know, recognize 

 each other more by scent than in any 

 other way. A robber bee, of course, 

 is not known by any peculiar odor 

 about its person. The bees easily rec- 

 ognize a thieving bee by the way it 

 approaches the hive. While the bees 

 that have a right to enter a hive at 

 once pass in, tlie robber bee tries to 

 sneak in. 



■Unfavorable weather for bees. 

 The prospect for a good crop of 

 honey from golden rod was never bet- 

 ter tiian it was tlie present year ; but 

 the weather was such from Sept. 8 to 

 Sept. 19, that not one pound of honey 

 was gathered. After about ten days of 

 continued rainy weather the sun came 

 out in all his glory, and the bees com- 

 menced to work again, and to-da5% 

 Sept. 19, is one of the finest days we 



have had this year. Bees are gathering 

 honey ; queens are out on the mating 

 trip, and all is going well in the Bay 

 State Apiary. We have several hun- 

 dred queens about ready to mail ; 

 about seventy-five will goto customers 

 on the 20 inst., and the balance of our 

 orders will be filled in about three days 

 more. 



A good reason why one should swear. 

 Brother A. I. Root is inclined to 

 lecture those who make use of profan- 

 ity. I am thinking if he had been 

 here through the long rainy spell and 

 had had three hundred queens ready 

 to mate, and at the same time orders 

 coming in by the hatful for them, he 

 might have said some words not fit to 

 publish here. We felt a good deal 

 like swearing as the rain poured down 

 day after day. But never mind, we 

 don't feel that way now. The bright 

 sunshine has driven the ''blues" into 

 the shade. 



During those rainy da3's several let- 

 ters came to hand urging us to hurry 

 up and ship "my queens," Bless your . 

 good nature, friends, we have hurried 

 up and have been hurrying up the past 

 thirty years and doing all we could 

 do to fill your orders promptly. All we 

 want to do is to get your orclers filled 

 and off our hands, and if we live to 

 see Sept. 22, not an order for a queen 

 will remain unfilled of those that are 

 received prior to Sept. 15. 



Please bear in mind when ordering 

 queens that we do not control tlie 

 weather. Bad weather is the only 

 drawback to the prompt shipment of 

 queens. 



Rearing queens from eggs. 

 I hope most of you read Dr. Tinker's 

 excellent article as published in the 

 Sept. Api. We are strongly convinced 

 that the best methods for rearing 

 queens or, we should say, starting 

 queen cells from the egg is the best 

 and most practical thing for queen 

 breeders to do. In future we shall 

 give the eggs to queenless bees twen- 



