1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



201 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Introducing Queens. 



If we had only one race of bees, and if one 

 queen were just as good as another, it would still 

 pay to raise queens to be used in makintr artifi- 

 cial swarms, as much precious time may be 

 thereby saved to the bees, which would other- 

 wise be lost in raising queens in the height of 

 the honey harvest. But when we are aiming 

 to raise only the best, and to make all the im- 

 provement we can, to raise and introduce queens 

 is, to the beekeeper, a matter of very great im- 

 portance. I do not propose to say anything con- 

 cerning the best method of raising queens, as 

 that has been fully discussed by many who have 

 more experience than I have. But I wish to call 

 the attention of the readers of the Journal to 

 my method of introducing queens. 



To introduce a queen safely, the following 

 points should be attended to : 



1. Before liberating the new queen, the bees 

 should have time to become thoroughly aware 

 that their former queen is gone, and that their 

 only hope of an immediate successor is in accept- 

 ing the imprisoned stranger. 



3. There should be time for the new queen to 

 acquii-e the scent of the hive. 



3. The bees should have time to become famil- 

 iar with her, and accustomed to her presence. 



4. She should leave the cage when the hive is 

 closed and the colony free from excitement. 



This last item is of great importance. If the 

 bees are excited and alarmed, and there is any 

 lingering odor about the queen which would 

 cause her to be recognized as a stranger, her life 

 would be in peril. 



Unless some means are employed to give the 

 queen and the colony to which she is to be in- 

 troduced, the same scent, I would not risk liber- 

 ating a valuable queen in less than forty-eight 

 hours. I have one end of my queen cage closed 

 with a plug of wood, having a | inch hole bored 

 through it, the inner end of which is reamered 

 out in the shape of a funnel, that the queen may 

 the more readily find it. The hole is closed 

 with a wooden peg. In cool weather, I ju-efer 

 to put the cage down between two combs, and 

 in the centre of the cluster. In warm weather it 

 will do to lay it on the top of the frames, if they 

 be not closed at top, and to cover it with a cloth 

 or a piece of carpet. • At the end of the second 

 day, 1 remove the peg from the hole in the 

 stopper, and stick over it, on the end of the 

 stopper, a piece of paper, or of cotton cloth 

 dipped in honey, leaving tlie cage in the same 

 position it was before, and close the hive. In 

 performing these latter operations, I disturb the 

 bees as little as possible. The bees will soon 

 remove the honeyed cover, and the queen will, 

 after a time, find her way out and be gladly re- 

 ceived. 



I have introduced a great many queens in this 

 way, and have never had the bees destroy one so 

 introduced ; and I do not believe that there is 

 the slightest danger of queens being destroyed, 

 if this plan is carefully carried out. I have fol- 



lowed it in every month from April to Decem- 

 ber, and always with the same success. 



Last September I introduced a queen on a 

 plan upon which I propose to experiment fur- 

 ther. I prepared some sweetened water strongly 

 scented with peppermint, and taking some of it 

 in my mouth, I lifted the combs up one by one, 

 and blew the peppermint water upon them in a 

 fine spray, so that tiie bees were thoroughly 

 moistened and scented with it. Having com- 

 pleted this operation, and removed the old queeii 

 while doing it, I dipped the new queen into the 

 peppeiniint water and put her on one of the 

 combs. She was received without any demon- 

 strations of liostility, and a week after I found 

 her surrounded by her new subjects and filling 

 up the available space in the hive with brood. 



I do not advise any one to risk a valuable 

 queen in this way. The one I so introduced was 

 impure, and I did not care whether the bees 

 should kill her or not. M. Mauin. 



New Castle, Ind. Dec. 6, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal] 



Introducing Queens. 



Mu. Editor : — In almost every number of the 

 Bee Journal I see the question raised and 

 answered how queens are best introduced ? 



My experience is nothing new at all, often 

 described by others, and once already by myself. 

 The method is so simple and eifective, and just 

 this simplicity may be the reason why our bee- 

 keeping brethren don't more generally use it. 



I grate two good sized nutmegs, mix them up 

 with diluted honey or sugar syrup (or sugar 

 water) in a tumbler holding one-fourth or one- 

 third of a pint, and sot it handy. Then I go to 

 the nucleus, cage the queen I want to introduce, 

 and stick her with cage in my vest pocket. Now 

 I proceed to the hive whose queen I intend to 

 supersede, kill her, or dispose of her to suit my- 

 self. I next with a teaspoon pour from the 

 tumbler above described enough syrup between 

 every two frames, so as to wet slightly almost 

 every bee in the hive. I leave enough in the 

 tumbler to give the queen a dive in, take her out 

 with the teaspoon, drop her between the frames, 

 and shut the hive. 



I have hardly ever made a miss, with this way 

 of introducing. It is in summer often a loss to 

 have a hive queenless for only two days, but 

 with the above described process the bees a})par- 

 ently do not become aware that a change is 

 made. 



In the fall I should prefer introducing queens 

 with the caL'e, as the absence of a queen for a 

 few days at this season does not make so much 

 difference to the hive, and forage being scarce 

 other bees are easily induced to rob. Yet I 

 have introduced queens with nutm.eg success- 

 fully in the fall, shutting up the entrance with 

 wire gauze for a few days if necessary to keep 

 out robbers. 



Last fall I introduced two queens with the 

 nutmeg process, in the presence of brother Hul- 

 man, of Terre Haute, Indiana, when he remarked 



