1890. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



213 



Introducing Queens. 



BY EMERSON T. ABBOTT. 



I have been led to wonder many 

 times why it is that most of the writers 

 on apiculture continue to urge the 

 importance of having a colony queen- 

 less for forty-eight hours before at- 

 tempting to introduce a queen. Dur- 

 ing the honey flow when the queen is 

 laying a large number of eggs every 

 day, to make the colony queenless for 

 forty-eight hours means the loss of a 

 good many bees. Besides this method 

 greatly increases the probabilities of 

 loss, in ray opinion. This is especi- 

 ally true when the operator is a novice, 

 as a big strong colony is very apt to 

 start queen-cells, and should any of 

 these be overlooked, the chances are 

 the queen would not be accepted 

 when released. 



For years 1 have paid no attention 

 to the old queen when I wanted to in- 

 troduce another, until I was ready to 

 release the new queen, and I very- 

 seldom have a queen rejected. In my 

 experience I have found it much 

 easier to introduce a queen to a strong 

 colony in which the old queen re- 

 mained until I was ready to release 

 the new one than to a colony which 

 had been queenless for a day or two. 



When I wish to introduce a new 

 queen, I simply place her in an or- 

 dinary cage, on top of the frames, or 

 down between them, so the bees can 

 have access to her *through the wire. 

 If she has not come a long journey 

 and been out of the hive for several 

 days, I leave her here for three or 

 four days. If she has been caged for 

 sometime, I wait only two days. I 

 then hunt out the old queen as quiet- 

 ly as possible. An experienced bee- 

 keeper can generally find her by tak- 



ing out two or three combs in the 

 center of the brood nest. When I 

 find her, I either kill or cage her and 

 remove her from the hive. I then 

 put back the frames as quickly and 

 quietly as I can, and return the cage 

 containing the new queen to its form- 

 er position, but first I turn back the 

 wire over the candy so the bees can 

 have access to it ; or, if the cage has 

 a plug in the end which contains the 

 candy, I remove this and close up the 

 hive at once, letting them alone for 

 four or five hours. I then, contrary 

 to the usual instructions, open the 

 hive and examine the cage. If I find 

 that the queen is out, I quietly lift 

 out the frames and look for the queen. 

 The moment I see her I shut up the 

 hive and let them alone, and I seldom 

 have any trouble. Surely not as 

 much as I did when I followed the 

 instructions found in the bee books, 

 or on mailing cages, and made the 

 colony queenless two or three days 

 before placing the queen upon the 

 hive. 



I often have four or five queens on 

 one hive in the summer, waiting to be 

 mailed, and I could introduce any one 

 of them by this method and have no 

 trouble. I never remove a queen from 

 the hive until I have another ready to re- 

 lease, and so loose no time. 



The novice should understand that 

 the best time to introduce queens is 

 when the bees are busy carrying in 

 honey and pollen. Never attempt to 

 release a queen. If there has been any 

 robliag in the apiary within two or 

 three days. Those who have not fol- 

 lowed ttiis plan of keeping the old 

 queen in the hive until ready to re- 

 lease the new one will be pleased with 

 the results, I think, if they will try it. 



St. Joseph, Mo. 



