58 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February 



troduction has been a failure, I sim- 

 ply put the old queen down where the 

 bees can release her and let the col- 

 ony go until I can try again. 



That last paragraph suggests that 

 this method has its failures. I will 

 say that I simply take that precau- 

 tion. I have never had to carry it to 

 fulfillment more than two or three 

 times. I think that in those two or 

 three times failure was not due to 

 the method, but was due to some de- 

 fect in the queen. Do the best we can, 

 some queens are weaklings, doomed 

 to a short existence. In one of those 

 few cases the queen was found dead 

 in the cage, had probably been sub- 

 jected to an injury when put into the 

 cage, which injury eventually proved 

 fatal, but was at first overlooked. 



I have, in a great many cases, left 

 the old queen over the top-bars and 

 instead of removing her, shifted the 

 cages so that the new queen could be 

 released. In the majority of cases 

 the new queen would be released and 

 soon be laying, but in other cases 

 they have turned up missing. Some 

 queens are too nervous to bear the 

 presence of another queen in the hive, 

 and so conduct themselves that the 

 bees cannot endure them. I am fully 

 persuaded queens introduced by this 

 method would be peifectly safe if 

 they would behave themselves . in a 

 quiet manner and not go on a ram- 

 page. As I could not control this fac- 

 tor I adopted the plan of removing 

 the old queen on the third day. 



Another modification I have tried 

 is as follows : Both cages are shoved 

 into the entrance wire up. The third 

 day, as before, the cage with the old 

 queen is pulled jout. Unfortunately, 

 when this modification is tried there 

 are many failures. I think this is due 

 to the fact that the bees in the upper 

 part of the hive are of a diflFerent age 

 from those on the bottom-board. 



One 'of the charming features of 

 this method is that it works with 

 Italians, blacks, Carniolans, hybrids, 

 etc. I have succeeded repeatedly 



with it with colonies of the most 

 vicious hybrids. 



There is one feature which I have 

 not decided upon as to the merits. I 

 said above that the old queen could 

 be with or without escorts. I have 

 n'ot yet decided whether it is better 

 to give her escorts or not. If my 

 readers try this method of introduc- 

 tion ne.xt season, I hope that they will 

 experiment along this line. I have 

 practically always put the old queen 

 back with no escorts, but it has oc- 

 curred to me of late that if escorts 

 were furnished, the colony might 

 show even less uneasiness about its 

 queen than when the queen has no es- 

 corts. Though the colony does not go 

 into a frenzy, it does show that some- 

 thing is wrong. 



Connecticut. 



THE INDIAN BEE 



Our readers who knew Leslie A. 

 Kenoyer when he was engaged in a 

 study of the problems of nectar se- 

 cretion at the Iowa College of Agri- 

 culture, will be interested in the pic- 

 ture of the combs of the giant rock 

 bee hanging from the underside of 

 a projecting rock. This picture of 

 the combs of Apis dorsata was taken 

 by Mr. Kenoyer at Gwalior, India. 

 Mr. Kenoyer is now connected with 

 the Allahabad Agricultural Institute. 

 We hope that he will find time to 

 make a detailed study of the habits 

 of the giant bee of India and give us 

 further information concerning them. 



OBITUARY 



Noah D. West 



Mr. Noah D. West, one of the quar- 

 tet of New York bee inspectors, 

 passed to the other side on November 

 9, 1920, in his 76th year, after several 

 months of illness. He was a native 

 of the town of Broom, Schoharie 

 County, where he engaged in farming 

 and beekeeping and occasionally 

 taught in district schools. He experi- 

 enced much success and later re- 



moved to Middleburgh. where he en- 

 larged his holdings of farm property, 

 and largely increased his apiaries, 

 which for some time consisted of sev- 

 eral hundred colonies. He was a 

 careful and conservative apiarist and 

 produced large quantities of comb 

 honey until recently, when, I believe, 

 he produced mainly e.xtracted. 



Mr. West was on the State bee in- 

 spection force for nearly twenty 

 years; he was faithful and interested 

 in the work and of much assistance in 

 our beekeepers' institutes and con- 

 ventions; we shall sadly miss his 

 counsel and the results of his ripe ex- 

 perience in our gatherings. Some 

 years ago he invented the West spiral 

 queen cage and queen-cell protector, 

 which he once told me was suggested 

 by the spring which is sometimes used 

 in hanging bird cages; it was well 

 adapted for its purpose, with its car- 

 tride shell, feeder, tin cover, etc. He 

 held patents for the United States 

 and Canada on this device and manu- 

 factured and sold large quantities of 

 them. 



Mr. West resided in the village 'of 

 Middleburgh for twenty years past 

 and has been more or less connected 

 with its activities since. He was a 

 lifelong member of the M. E. Church, 

 a member of its official board and 

 active in its varied work. 



He is survived by his wife and 

 seven children by a former marriage. 

 Wheeler D. Wright. 



Altamont, N. Y. 



Combs or the Indian Rock Bcc, Apis dorsata. hanging from uniicrsiUc of projecting rock 



at Gwalior. 



A GROWL 



By A. F. Bomney 



In the current issue of Gleanings, 

 Mr. Coverdale reports the honey 

 crop out of the hands of the produc- 

 ers. This may apply to the eastern 

 part of this State, Iowa, and the 

 western half of Illinois, but will not 

 for the west half of Iowa and the 

 east half of Nebraska lor the north- 

 western part of Missouri, where 

 we had a very heavy white cl'over 

 flow. Woodbury County. Iowa, pro- 

 duced one-and-a-half million pounds 

 •of honey, and, I am told, much of it 

 is still uinsold. Only two-fifths of my 

 heavy crop is disposed of (December 

 15), and other beekeepers report a 

 similar trouble. 



I do not think there is anything to 

 get excited about. The average de- 

 mand for honey is increasing rapidly, 

 and there is no reason why local 

 State demand' should: not absorb 

 every pound of honey produced, more 

 particularly the comb. I have s'old a 

 considerable amount of comb honey 

 here in shallow extracting frames, 

 which average about 4 pounds each. 

 1 make a container by bending heavy 

 millboard, such as packing boxes are 

 made of, to cover sides and bottom 

 of frame, wrap all in heavy paper and 

 deliver. The cost is only the time. I 

 got 35 cents a pound, gross weight. 

 The great advantage is : I sold four 

 pounds instead of one. Persistent ad- 

 vertising will sell even the granulated 

 honey. 



This is the first season I ever had 

 honey on hand after November IS. 



