VOL. VI, 



f\UGUST, 1896. 



NO. 8. 



Introducing Queens. 



HY CHAS. H. THTES. 



A reader of the Bee Keeper desires 

 to know how to introduce a queen to 

 a colony having a laying workei', or, 

 in other words, how to dispose of lay- 

 ing workers. There are several meth- 

 ods that have been successsully tried, 

 and W'here there is raore than one 

 method to accomplish a certain end, I 

 usually choose the most simple, but 

 this will not work every time, as 

 lifferent colonies are very different, 

 also the season has something to do 

 with this matter. 



First I try to prevent having laying 

 workers, therefore have not had much 

 experience in this line for some time, 

 however, when I commenced bee keep- 

 ing, I had quite a lot of experience 

 along this line, at least as much and 

 more than I then desired. My first 

 method now would be to give to such 

 a colony a queen cell just ready to 

 hatch, one in which you can see the 

 queen moving. This cell I would 

 protect with wire cloth, leaving only 

 the very end of cell exposed. Usu- 

 ally I have no trouble iu having the 

 bees accept a queen of this sort, yet 

 this will not always work. Some col- 

 onies seem determined not to accept a 



queen of any kind. Where the above 

 method failed I would proceed to in- 

 troduce a laying queen the same as I 

 introduce a very valuable queen, 

 which method I have described be- 

 fore, and in which I have never met 

 with a failure. 



I will again give it here : Take a 

 piece of wire cloth 6 or 8 ins. square, 

 or about that size, turn over the edges 

 about J to f inch, then go to some 

 good populous colony and get a frame 

 of brood which is just hatching in 

 large patches, over this place your 

 wire cage, put in your queen, i. e. put 

 your queen under this cage, and hold 

 the wire in place with a few wires 

 wrapped clear around cage, frame and 

 all. You should, however, brush off 

 all bees from the frame before pro- 

 ceeding with the above work. This 

 cage should be so placed that it will 

 take in some honey as well as hatch- 

 ing brood, but should contain no un- 

 sealed larva or brood. Soon after a 

 number of bees have hatched you will 

 see eggs in some of the cells. Now 

 you may make a small opening in one 

 corner of this cage large enough so 

 the queen may get out, put the frame 

 back into the hive and leave alone for 

 three or four days, and your queen 



