THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



27 



of the frames. As long as the bees 

 gather in knots about the cage and 

 engage in biting at the wire cloth I 

 leave them to vent their spleen till 

 they get into a better humor. As soon 

 as they become reconciled to the cag- 

 ed queen, they will be found crawling 

 about the cage as leisurely as any- 

 where else on the combs. At this 

 stage of their moods I remove the stop- 

 per to the feed department of the cage, 

 and leave the b -es to liberate the 

 queen by eating out the soft candy. I 

 now leave them to themselves till the 

 queen has had time to begin to lay 

 eggs, after which she is as safe as if 

 she had been reared in the hive. I 

 insist that this is the only bushms way 

 to perform the manipulation, and the 

 only way that is practically sure be- 

 cause it depends on the judgment of 

 the apiarist and not on the whims of 

 the senseless bees. I do not deem it 

 necessary or advisable to describe the 

 many plans that may be adopted, with 

 more or less success, in the introduc- 

 tion of laying queens, because it is 

 much safer plan and adheres to that 

 as long as it does not disappoint. 



INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS 



Is a different matter altogether. It is 

 well understood by all experienced 

 apiarists that virgin queens when first 

 born may be introduced to almost any 

 queenless colony by simply permitting 

 them to "toddle" into the hive. A 

 new born baby queen has an artless 

 confident way of staggering in among 

 the bees that insures its safety against 

 violence. But once let her become a 

 few hours, to a week old, and take on 

 that "pert," fidgety temperament char- 

 acteristic of the virgin queen, and it 

 is well nigh impossible to get any full 

 colony to accept her, and a very risky 



matter to install her in an ordinary 

 nursing nucleus. I have often intro- 

 duced a dozen of them to nuclei by the 

 caging process as described above, with 

 little or no loss, and perhaps, the next 

 trial with the same number and under 

 apparently the same circumstances 

 would prove nearly an entire failure. 

 I have met with the best success when 

 introducing old virgins, by removing 

 the nuclei to new stands and immedi- 

 ately after the field workers have re- 

 turned to the old stand leaving the 

 nuclei with mostly young bees pro- 

 ceed to introduce the aged virgins. 

 This experiment explains why Mr. 

 Alley and some others, have reported 

 better success when introducing this 

 class of virgins. They were wee 6/teof 

 nursing nuclei, so small that the bees 

 with which they are stocked are in- 

 different as to what goes on in their 

 toy home. There was a time when I 

 thought I could introduce aged virgins 

 to most any queenless bees by follow- 

 ing closely my caging process, the same 

 as when introducing laying queens. 

 And the fact is 1 can introduce them 

 with very nearly uniform success, but 

 strange and unaccountable to tell, so 

 many of them disappear before, and 

 at the mating period that the loss is 

 too heavy to count it a success. That 

 worker bees should exhibit spite and 

 jealous contempt toward virgin queens 

 of several days old, is a curious fact, 

 but a true one. They are ready to 

 persecute them on any occasion and 

 often to the death. And often young 

 queens suffer persecution though rear- 

 ed in the hive from the cells. Many 

 persons believe that young queens are 

 lost by entering the wrong hive, on 

 their return from their bridal trip, or 

 are caught by birds, etc. 



