THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



41 



of a piece of wire gauze and around 

 whose edge is fastened a strip of tin i 

 inch wide, made into a ring so that the 

 cage when finislied resembles a little 

 tin cup having a wire gauze bottom. 

 I always cage the queen over sealed 

 houey if possible and press the tin rim 

 as far as possible into the comb, with- 

 out hurting the queen, so that the bees 

 cannot eat in from the side on which 

 the cage is placed. When I have caged 

 her, I take my knife and cut, from the 

 opposite side of the comb into the cage, 

 a hole about k inch in diameter leaving 

 the plug of wax and honey in the hole. 

 The bees will eat this plug out, and in 

 that way liberate the queen, in from 

 two to ten hours. The whole operation 

 will not take over five minutes, and by 

 this method I introduced over 500 

 queens last year with the loss of only 

 two. 



Mr. Lockk. — To introduce a queen 

 easily and successfully, go to the col- 

 ony into which you wish to introduce 

 the queen, secure the old queen, cage 

 the new queen upon the side of the 

 comb, cut a hole through the comb into 

 the cage from the opposite side, wash- 

 ing the plug but leaving it so that the 

 bees will readily move it, and return the 

 comb to the hive. The object in this 

 method is, the bees, on finding that 

 tiieir queen is missing, at once accept 

 the new one, instead of starting queen 

 cells, while if the bees were left queen- 

 less until they start cells it is hard to 

 get them to accept a queen. I would 

 say further that, as an experiment, I 

 have successfully introduced a few vir- 

 gin queens over three days old in this 

 way. When possible introduce these 

 queens at sunset. 



Mr. Benedict. — I cage the queen 

 similar to the above methods, antl re- 

 lease her as soon as the bees become 

 quiet. As a rule it is not necessary to 

 keep the queen caged over twenty-four 

 hours, but I once had a queen caged 

 seventeen days before the bees would 

 accept her. 



Mr. Betsixger. — The process of in- 

 troducing laying queens by my method 

 cannot be excelled I think. The method 

 is this — there are certain conditions to 

 be observed in introducing queens — 

 the sooner the new queen or stranger 

 (for she is a stranger) is introduced 

 after the old one is removed the better ; 

 for it is then that the colony is in the 

 best condition to receive her — because 

 at the moment when the bees miss 

 their queen they will accept most any- 



4 



thing to meet the emergency — when if 

 we wait until the bees "recognize their 

 loss before receiving a queen, they will 

 commence cell building when we 

 should have to wait from five to ten 

 days to overcome this. With this 

 method we have perfect success. To 

 show what faith I have in this I would 

 state that I purcliased a queen costing 

 #10.00 and introduced her by this 

 method. If I can risk such a queen, I 

 think other beekeepers could risk $2.00 

 queens. There is still another cage 

 much better than mine and costs noth- 

 ing, which I will descrii)e— take an old 

 queen cell and cut it open lengthwise 

 on one side, open the cut carefully and 

 put the new queen into this cell, care- 

 fully closing it again, and insert the cell 

 into the hive, The queen will gnaw 

 herself out and all is well. 



Rev. Van Slyke.— I am glad to 

 greet the brethren and very glad that 

 this convention is gathered here, as I 

 hope it may be for years to come. I 

 am especially glad to see so many meet 

 in this central city. I was astonished 

 in taking up a journal, "The Beekeep- 

 ers Guide," to notice an article which 

 is calculated to create a misapprehen- 

 sion, especially in regard to a man 

 whom we revere in beekeeping, Mr. 

 Quinby. It is here inferred that he 

 was very slow in introducing into his 

 apiary the movable frame hives until 

 his son-in-law, Mr. L. C. Root, took 

 charge of his apiary. I know this to 

 be false, as I visited Mr. Quinby's 

 apiary many years before Mr. Root had 

 anything to do with it. I call attention 

 to this matter from the apparent injus- 

 tice to Mr. Quinby who was one of the 

 first to use the movable frame hive 

 largely in America. 



A gentleman, who did not give his 

 name, stated that the article referred to 

 was an editorial written in reply to an 

 article written by a certain Mr. Robin- 

 son, and further stated that he lived 

 near Mr. Robinson who did not own a 

 colony of bees and never had. 



The following subjects were then 

 offered for discussion : 



DYSEXTEUY : ITS CAUSES AND 

 PREVEXTIOX. 



Mr. Betsixger.— I could report the 

 causes of this disease in two minutes, 

 it is caused by the bees consuming more 

 honey in a given time than they should 

 do. Bees cannot consume more than 

 seven grains of honey in their lifetime. 



