1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



57 



with keeping bees licaltli.v, and if so. 

 why don't we have some practical 

 way to give bees salt? We might 

 have some big water bags like the 

 automobile t'ourists use, filled with 

 very salty water, and hang them in 

 the apiary and let the bees help them- 

 selves. I wish some one would give 

 us advice from a Government Experi- 

 ment Station, as to whether bees 

 really need salt. 



Daniel Danielson. 

 Colorado. 



QUEEN-INTRODUCTION 



Can It Be Made One Hundred Per 

 Cent Successful? 



By Allen Latham 



Of all the trials to which beekeep- 

 ers are subjected, few try the patience 

 beyond the killing of a choice queen 

 by some b'olshcvik bees. The subject 

 of queen-introduction has, perhaps, 

 been brought into the cohmins of the- 

 bee journals as often as any, and 

 countless ways of introducing queens 

 have been offered. Many of these 

 suggested methods have their merits, 

 but all have one comm'on weakness — 

 they all fail at times. Tom succeeds 

 with one method while Dick fails 

 with that but succeeds with another. 

 Is there some O'ne method which is 

 fool-proof, which will work with all 

 varieties of bees, and which will work 

 under all conditions? Am I about to 

 offer such a boon to the beekeeping 

 world ? 



No; I cannot offer this boon, but I 

 do think that I can offer a method 

 which is simple and within the reach 

 of all, and one which comes as near 

 reaching the 100 per cent mark as we 

 shall ever find unless we are willing 

 to adopt a method which costs more 

 than the death of an average queen. 

 A breeding queen should never be 

 subjected to any other method than 

 that of letting her loose upon combs 

 of hatching brood, kept warm by 

 artificial heat, and from which all old 

 bees are excluded. This is a 100 per 

 cent method, but is too costly for tlie 

 regular procedure. 



The method I am about to explain 

 will not work with colonies that are 

 queenless. It can be used only with 

 colonies which have a queen that is 

 to be replaced by another. As at the 

 present development of beekeeping a 

 very large per cent 'of all quetn intD- 

 duction is requeening, this new meth- 

 od will iirove usable in the vast ma- 

 jority of cases. 



Proceed as follows: Find the old 

 queen and cage her, with or without 

 attendants. This cage need have no 

 candy nor exit hole It may be a 

 piece of half-inch board 1J4 inches 

 square with an inch hole sunk in one 

 side, over which hole is tacked a 

 square of wire-cloth. Place this cage 

 with that which contains the new 

 queen side by side on the top-bars of 

 the frames. So place them that they 

 are wire down over a space between 

 two frames. Also adjust them so that 

 the candy-plugged exit of the cage 

 containing the new queen is closed to 



the bees of tlie colony by the other 

 cage. Close the hive and leave it 

 thus for forty-eight to sixty hours. 



It is well to place several thick- 

 nesses of burlap or other loose ma- 

 terial over the cages before putting 

 on the cover. A cold night, or a hot, 

 sunny day will, perhaps, ruin the 

 caged queens. Right here let me ask: 

 How many caged queens are prob- 

 ably lost every summer because only 

 a thin cover is between the cage in 

 which the queen is confined and the 

 sunshine of a mid-summer day? 



After the lapse of '^wo or three days 

 rcTuove the cage containing the old 

 queen. In ninety-nipe cases out of 

 one hundred the other cage will be 

 found with no angry bees about it, 

 and its inmates will be found well 

 fed by the bees of the colony. Slight- 

 ly loosen the cardboard over the 

 randy, or punch a small hole in it. 

 Frequently, in the case of weak colo- 

 nies, the bees will not release the new 

 queen for weeks, if they do not get a 

 taste of the candy. I have even known 

 them to propolize the cardboard en- 

 tirely over, thus sealing the queen in 

 for eternity unless the beekeeper in- 

 tervenes. Now close the hive and let 

 it be undisturbed for four or five 

 days. 



This method has several features 

 of unusual value, some of which I 

 will enumerate and enlarge upon. 



Of prime importance is the fact that 

 the colony is never dequeened. Not 

 being dequeened, it does not acquire 

 the frenzy which a dequeened colony 

 is likely to acquire. Not acquiring 

 that frenzy, it omits, usually, the re- 

 sults of that frenzy. In other words, 

 it will not commonly construct queen- 

 cells under the treattnent which I 

 have outlined. Of even more im- 

 portance, it will not acquire the ani- 

 mosii}' against the new queen which 

 it would have if the old queen were 

 not present. 



This last statement is most sug- 

 gestive. I will not take space to go 



into it further, but every student of 

 bees will find it a very resourceful 

 subject for study. I wi'l barely men- 

 tion that I have had colonies care 

 for and feed upwards of ten queens 

 for weeks at a time, each queen with- 

 out any attendants and all cages 

 without food. I once thought to win- 

 ter surplus queens after such manner, 

 but found that eventually all queens 

 but one would be deserted as the rig- 

 ors of winter set in. 



Another very important fact devel- 

 ops from this absence of animosity 

 towards the new queen. She is fed 

 by the bees very soon, if not at once. 

 Consequently queens thus introduced 

 fare much better than those which 

 have to subsist upon the candy in the 

 cage. All the attendants of the 'new 

 queen can be retnoved, and even the 

 candy, and usually all will be well. I 

 find, however, that sometimes a queen 

 is allowed 'to starve, and for that rea- 

 son I furnish the cage with a moist 

 candy, if no escort bees are present, 

 and the usual ca'ndy if the escorts are 

 there. In most cases both escorts 

 and queen are soon fed, and after 

 several days the candy in the cage 

 will be but slightly diminished. Hence, 

 the new queen is in a plump condition 

 by the time she is released, and gets 

 to laying very promptly. 



Another consequence of this plan 

 'of introducing queenbees is the abso- 

 lute certainty that a colony need not 

 remain queenless for more than a day 

 or two. Why do I make this state- 

 ment? I will tell you. The old 

 queen is no't killed. When I intro- 

 duce queens by this plan and feel at 

 all doubtful about the outcome, I put 

 the old queen into a cage stocked 

 with candy and escort bees at the 

 time I remove her from beside the 

 other queen. This cage is placed in 

 the upper part of the hive, between 

 the cushion and inner cover. Four 

 days later, when I look into the hive 

 to see if the new queen is O. K., if I 

 find that through some defect the in- 



Sbort course class in ueckecpitig, Wiscyn&in, 1920 



