16 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



exhibition. If bee-keepers show sufficient in- 

 terest, we have no doubt it will be held. 



[For the American Bee Journal .] 



To Introduce Queens Safely. 



Mr. Editor : — I see by your Journal that 

 bee-keepers still use the wire cage for introdu- 

 cing queens in deprived colonies. I have a bet- 

 ter plan, which may be of benefit to those who 

 are in the bee business, saving time and avoid- 

 ing risk. It is as follows : 



Dissolve four ounces of sugar in one pint, of 

 water, and add one ounce of essence of pepper- 

 mint. Take out your frames, and sprinkle Ihc 

 bees well all over with the solution. Then 

 replace the frames, and put in your queen, and 

 the bees will not disturb her. 



I introduce all my queens in this manner, 

 and have not lost one yet. H. Patjl. 



Council Bluffs, Iowa. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bee-Feeder. 



The following was suggested after reading 

 the last number of the Bee Journal. 



A simple, safe, and cheap bee-feeder for the 

 Langstroth hive is made of a Lyman self-seal- 

 ing fruit jar, or other pattern jar, with suitable 

 top. The principle is to have a vacuum and 

 no vent on top ; thus you may tap it like a bar- 

 rel of cider, but unless you give it vent nothing 

 will run out. 



Punch holes in the tin top of such a jar, close 

 together about the centre, and then solder a 

 piece of the finest wove wire,* such as is used 

 on milk strainers, over the holes. Fill the jar 

 full of liquid honey or sugar syrup made of 

 about the same consistence ; press on or screAV 

 on the cover, according td the kind of jar used, 

 perfectly air-tight ; then turn over quickly bot- 

 tom up, and nothing will run out, only as the 

 bees suck it through the wove wire. In use, 

 place it over the hole in the honey board, over 

 the cluster of bees. Water can also be given to 

 the bees in the same manner. 



This bee-feeder was suggested by bird water- 

 glasses and ink-stands that I saw east. I 

 have used nine during the last six weeks with 

 good success. 



Referring to the article ' 'Criticism, " on 

 p°ge 188 of the April number of the Bee Jour- 

 nal, and "how to make all swarms equally pros- 

 perous," I would like our bee-keeping Mends 

 to answer, through the Journal, whether they 

 have ever tried the experiment of removing the 

 queen of a stock not up to time, and giving 

 them a sea^d or young queen, or brood from a 

 prosperous colony, from which to raise one — and 

 the effect it had on the unthrifty colony ? 



John M. Price. 



Buffalo Grove, Iowa. 



*Wovewire, if of brass, would be apt to generate 

 verdigris it not carefully attended to, and produce foul- 

 brood in the colony It would be well, therefore, to em- 

 ploy some substitute not liable to this objection.— Kd. 



[For the American Bee Journal ] 



Artificial Natural Swarming. 



Opening one of my hives sometime ago, and 

 lifting out. a frame, I saw the queen among the 

 crowd of workers, and distinctly heard her 

 piping — which she continued to do while I held 

 the frame in my hand. Concluding from this 

 that there was another queen in the hive, I pro- 

 ceeded to search, and found a closed queen 

 cell on one of the combs, so placed that its apex 

 nearly touched the lower cross-piece of the 

 frame, thereby preventing the enclosed queen 

 from emerging in the usual manner. On cut- 

 ting open the cell I found a perfectly mature 

 queen in it, which I seized and confined in a 

 cage. Returning the frames, I replaced the 

 honey-board and removed the tin cover from 

 one of the holes ; on this I laid the cage, set a 

 glass tumbler over it, and shut the hive. I in- 

 tended to take away the caged queen after ex- 

 amining some other colonies ; but in a few min- 

 utes a swarm hurriedly issued from this hive, 

 and settled on a tree close by. Supposing the 

 old queen had accompanied the swarm, I incon- 

 siderately liberated the young one, and let her 

 enter the hive. I had scarcely done so, when 

 the swarm returned, as hurriedly as it had left, 

 and re-entered the hive. I had not leisure then 

 to re-examine the hive, but on doing so next 

 day, found the colony queenless. Doubtless 

 the old queen remaining at home had unexpect- 

 edly encountered her rival, and the very rare 

 case happened that both were killed in the 

 deadly fray. 



This colony was not populous and could 

 scarcely have contemplated swarming; the pur- 

 pose of raising a young queen being, most prob- 

 ably, to supercede the rather unprolific old one. 



But can swarming be incited by introducing 

 a caged queen in a colony, or placing one thus 

 over a hole in the honey-board? If so, might 

 we not manage to relieve ourselves of the 

 trouble of driving out swarms, by properly 

 availing ourselves of this circumstance ? In 

 driving we are not always successful in securing 

 the queen ; and it would seem that in this case 

 she lagged behind. Yet any difficulty from 

 that cause could easily be overcome by means 

 of the reserve queen confined in the cage, which 

 could be given to either stock, as circumstances 

 might require. But the first matter is to ascer- 

 tain whether such process will produce a swarm. 



j. pounsfort. 



Michigan. _^____^_ 



Hgir Perfect queens are occasionally so small 

 that it is difficult to distinguish them from work- 

 ers ; aud very expert practical apiarians have 

 sometimes been unable to find the queen in a 

 hive where healthy worker brood was regularly 

 produced, and which consequently must have 

 had a normal qncen. 



Wh3 r on earth do people think it fine to be 

 idle and useless ? Fancy a drone superciliously 

 desiring a working bee to stand aside, and say- 

 ing — "out of my way, you miserable drudge ; 

 J never made a drop of honey in all my life." — 

 Country Parson. 



