THE AMERICAN BEEKEEPER. 



83 



Introducing Queens. 



BY M. H. DE WITT. 



As this is the season, or time of 

 year that introducing queens is done, 

 I will try and give your readers my 

 plan of doing so. Perhaps the best 

 way is to place the cage containing 

 the new queen between two brood 

 combs and leave her there for 24 

 hours, when the cork is replaced by 

 a chunk of comb honey, which the 

 bees will knaw out and thereby lib- 

 erate the queen. Twenty-four hours 

 confinement is better than a longer 

 term, because by this time bees have 

 not yet commenced to construct queen 

 cells, and therefore accept a queen 

 more readily. It is a matter of course 

 that when introducing we must be 

 sure that no second queen or capped 

 queen cell is in the hive. No queen 

 should be introduced in any colony 

 which was without brood for a week 

 or more, because only young bees 

 take care of the queen and her pro- 

 geny. If you have such a colony, 

 take at least two comb3 with hatch- 

 ing brood and adhering bees from a 

 strong stand, put them in the middle 

 of the swarm in exchange for two of 

 their combs, and put your cage with 

 queen between them. One end of the 

 introducing cage should contain a 

 sponge saturated with honey. A cage 

 with a new queen may be placed in a 

 colony for several days before the old 

 queen is taken out, and the cork on 

 the down end of the queen cage re- 

 placed by a chunk of honey at the 

 time when the old queen is removed. 

 A good manner of introducing a val- 

 uable queen, also, is to have the old 

 queen caged for a day or less, then 

 putting the new queen in the same 



cage, (after the old queen is removed,) 

 and placing it in the same spot, closed 

 with a chunk of honey. The cage 

 retains the scent of the old queen , and 

 the colony, believing their queen to 

 be in the same place, put up with the 

 stranger by the time the honey is 

 knawed out of the opening. When 

 we open a colony and find a lump of 

 bees as large as a walnut, or larger, 

 in the bottom of the hive or on the 

 side of the comb, the bees are bunch- 

 ing or balling the queen for some rea- 

 son or other, and will starve her to 

 death if left alone. The best manner 

 to save that queen is to take up the 

 ball of bees with your hand and drop 

 them in a tumbler of water (luke- 

 warm if the temperature be cold), dip 

 them under with your finger ; the ball 

 loosens, and the queen escapes with- 

 out being stung. Put her in a cage 

 closed with a good chunk of honey, 

 and place it between two brood combs. 

 You are very apt to see her next day, 

 walking among the bees as if nothing 

 had happened. 

 Sang Run, Md. 



Fixed Frames. 



BY J. E. POND' 



The time is fast approaching, if it 

 has not already arrived, when the 

 great majority of educated bee-keep- 

 ers will admit the imperative, yes, 

 absolute necessity for using fixed 

 frames. Loose frames cannot by any 

 means as yet known to myself, be so 

 used that they will hang perfectly 

 plumb and true, and unless frames 

 do so hang, the maximum of gain 

 cannot be obtained. When I first 

 began experimenting on the close- 

 spacing-of -frame principle, which I 



