146 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



and nice, and besides I consider it 

 quite a help to tlie bees. 



As the hone}' season draws to a 

 close, I sometimes tindit necessar}' 

 to invert the sections in order to 

 get all finislied, as the bees are 

 sometimes slow to finish up the 

 lower edge of the combs when 

 forage begins to slack otf. Though 

 all these little things make extra 

 work for the apiarist, I find it pays 

 me to attend to them and keep the 

 bees at work to the best advan- 

 tage. As the honey seasons with 

 us here are very short, it is neces- 

 sary that we keep the bees at work 

 by giving them every advantage 

 possible. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



I am asked how I introduce 

 queens. My reply is, tliat tljere are 

 many ways in which queens may 

 be successfully introduced. But 

 what 1 consider to be the safest 

 method is the way I propose to tell 

 the readers of the "Api." 



The cage I use is made of wire 

 cloth, eight meshes to the inch ; 

 this is cut into squares 4X4 inch- 

 es. I remove two strands from 

 each of the four sides, then I turn 

 np each edge five-eighths of an inch 

 forming a square box, as it were, 

 without a cover. These are called 

 surface cages. Mr. G. M. Doo- 

 little has described them several 

 times, only he uses wire cloth of 

 much finer mesh. 1 like mine 

 much better for their having a larger 

 mesh. I now go to the colony to 

 whicli I wish to introduce a queen 

 (no matter whether the colony has 

 long been qucenless or has recently 

 been made so, the method is the 

 same) and take out a comb contain- 

 ing hatching brood (if they have 

 such) shake off all the bees, then 

 I lay the comb down flatwise and 

 place the queen u[)on it and at once 

 cover her with the surface cage mov- 

 ing it along carefully with the queen 

 until the cage covers some uncapped 



honey and hatching brood, but the 

 brood may be omitted if it is not 

 convenient to get at. Now I crowd 

 the edges of the cage into the 

 comb, enough so it will not drop oflT, 

 and return the comb and queen to 

 the centre of the cluster, close the 

 hive and leave them in that condi- 

 tion twenty-four or thirty-six hours 

 (during the honey season twenty- 

 four will answer) at the end of 

 which time I take out the comb 

 containing the queen and with my 

 knife-blade I rim out a hole through 

 the comb into the cage from the op- 

 posite side from the cage. The hole 

 should be just large enough so the 

 queen or bees can pass in or out of 

 the cage. 1 then at once return the 

 comb and the bees soon pass 

 through the hole to where the queen 

 is, when the queen will, in a short 

 time pass out and go about her 

 duty as though nothing had hap- 

 pened and whenever convenient the 

 cage may be removed. I will state 

 that I often allow the queen to run 

 in at the entrance during the height 

 of the honey flow, but I do this only 

 where I have removed their old 

 queen from two to six hours previ- 

 ous, or as soon after removing the 

 queen as I notice they have missed 

 her which is indicated b}^ the un- 

 easiness of the bees. In such a 

 case a queen may be introduced 

 with comparative safety. 



Some colonies seem to be deter- 

 mined not to accept a queen. In 

 such a case I would advise the fol- 

 lowiug method : Shake the bees all 

 out on a sheet and place an empty 

 box on one edge of sheet and cause 

 them to run in the box. Allow 

 them to remain thus one or two 

 hours and shake all on the sheet 

 again and this time drop the quoen 

 among them and allow them to run 

 into their hive. This plan has 

 never failed with me, though it is 

 so much work that I do not prac- 

 tise it unless forced to it. 



Bristol, Vt. 



