THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



209 



examine their hives immediately, and cut 

 out all the cherry and peach-blossom honey 

 that remain in the hives, and tell me in the 

 spring how many colonies you have lost on 

 .account of dysentery, "i^ou will readily 

 recoKuize said cherry honey by its cherry 

 color and taste, the appearance of line bub- 

 bles in the honey cells, its resistance to or 

 bursting the sealing; and instead of your 

 bees dying of dysentery they are hermeti- 

 cally sealed up in constipation (everyone is 

 aware that cheriT and peach pit meat is 

 poisonous and of a costive nature). The 

 nectar of flowers remaining in the fruit is 

 tlie cerm of the comine; fruit seed and if the 

 seecT is poisonous the honey is of a similar 

 nature. The above is tlie best preventive 

 of the early spring bee disease that I know 

 ■of. The next best (for those that have not 

 already gorged themselves with the said 

 honey) is to give them for food some warm 

 water sweetened with N. O. molasses or 

 something of a gentle purgative nature. 

 When you see your bees take a flight and 

 void freely and return to the hive, have 

 some sweetened water, sweetened with any 

 of the refined grades of sugar, ready for 

 them in the hive, warmed to blood heat be- 

 fore placing in the hive that they may par- 

 take heartily of it, as honey in the hive 

 becomes too rich for them, and the weather 

 is usually too chilly for the bees to seek 

 water in the winter or spring flights. Where 

 bees void freely and return to the hive, in 

 this way of treatment they are safe. But 

 after voiding on a chilly day the warmth 

 leaves the body almost the instant that they 

 empty themselves, and often chill and are 

 not able to return. Bee Smith. 



Tecumseh, Mich. 



[Does not the same fatality attend bees 

 where they have not access to peach and 

 cherry blossom? — Ed.] 



« ♦ • » » 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Introducing Queens. 



There are various methods of introducing 

 queens, all of which can be practised, no 

 doubt, with a considerable degree of suc- 

 cess. One way is this: after taking the 

 queen from the colony to which you intend 

 to introduce the Italian queen, drop her in- 

 to honey and daub her all over with it, then 

 Eut her into the hive among the bees and 

 y the time they clean the honey off her 

 they will accept her; but I never dared to 

 risk introducing a valuable queen in that 

 way, and cannot recommend it. Another 

 method is to put the queen and two or three 

 workers in a wire cage about one inch 

 square and four inches long- cut a piece of 

 honey as large as the inside of the cage, 

 then cut the cells off from one side and put 

 it in the cage next to the bees, with the cells 

 up, then put in the wooden stopper and 

 draw a piece of wire through the top end of 

 the cage and separate the combs near the 

 centre of the hive far enough to let the cage 

 down between them, and when you get the 

 cage where you want it, bend the wire over 

 the top of one of the frames and let it 

 remain there 48 hours, then daub some 

 honey on her and release her to the colony. 

 I used to practice this method with univer- 

 sal success, but last year it wjis entirely un- 

 reliable. I then caged them the same way 

 and left them the same length of time and 



instead of releasing her I would unstop the 

 cage and take out the piece of honey and 

 having ready a piece or soft comb honey 

 from ilieir own hive, stop the cage with 

 that, putting it in with the cells crosswise; 

 tlien take a knife and scar the combs 

 enough to set the honey to dripping in 

 several places and close the hive. The 

 workers will innnediately turn their atten- 

 tion to taking care of tlie drijtning honey 

 and repairing the combs, and will gnaw the 

 stopper out of the cage and the queen will 

 pass out unnoticed and will soon be depos- 

 iting eggs unmolested. When released in 

 this way I do not look for her for a number 

 of days, and have not lost a queen in thi^ 

 way. 



It must be remembered that old black 

 comb will not do to stop the cage with as 

 the bees are liable to not gnaw it out. There 

 is of course some risk in introducing in this 

 way, but to introduce a valuable queen with 

 perfect safety and without running any 

 risk, I go to two or more hives and take a 

 comb from each of ripe and hatching brood 

 and shake it to get off all or nearly all the 

 old workers, and place them together in an 

 empty hive, and all being in a strange place 

 and strange to each otiier and all or nearly 

 all young workers they will not quarrel. 

 Then place the queen on the combs, not 

 caged, and she will go to laying unmolest- 

 ed, and the workers will pay the same res- 

 pect to her as they would to their own 

 queen. In introducing in this way the 

 queen can be seen very often for the first 

 hour or two, and if anything should go 

 wrong it can be arrested before she is likely 

 to be stung and ail tlie old workers picked 

 from the combs and allowed to return to 

 their own home. A very few workers are 

 sufficient to introduce a queen to, if they 

 are hatching pretty fast from one or more 

 combs. If the nights are cool it will be 

 necessary to take thein in the house at 

 night, until they get strong enough to pro- 

 tect themselves against the cold. If there 

 is danger of being robbed it will be neces- 

 sary to put them in the house or cellar un- 

 til some of them are old enough to guard 

 the hive, then set them out and contract the 

 entrance. Add combs of hatching brood 

 from other hives and they will soon be a 

 strong colony. With this mode of introduc- 

 ing we not ouly introduce with perfect 

 safety, but we add one colony to our num- 

 ber instead of simply superseding another 

 queen; thus we have all our gueens laying 

 which is of vast importance since bees and 

 combs are capital with a bee-keeper. 



Virgin queens can usually be introduced 

 if taken as soon as hatched and put where 

 you want them, uncaged. S. K. Marsh. 



[The only way we know of to introduce a 

 queen with perfect safety under all circum- 

 stances, is to have no bees whatever in the 

 hive when she is introduced. Have frames 

 of comb containing all sealed brood with 

 bees just hatching out, and put inio a hive 

 with not a single worker; put the queen in, 

 shut up the hive bee-tight in every spot and 

 place over a strong colony with wire cloth 

 between so that no bees may pass from be- 

 low, but the heat may. Then, in 4 or 5 days 

 set the hive where you want it and open the 

 entrance.— Ed.] 



