1881) 



Ui.EANliNGS IN JiEE CULTUllE. 



1001 



cage. The little slate, or tablet, on the liivo 

 is marked, '• Imp., cgd 21st,"' which means, 

 in full, that on the L'lst of the month we 

 caged an imported queen in that hive. If 

 the queen is an untested one, thus: "SI. 00, 

 cgd 2oth ;■" if tested, "Test., cgd 2itth;"'if 

 select tested. "SH. 00, test., cgd stli." The 

 lnve,as thus marked, is left for two or three 

 days, at the expiration of which time, in the 

 great majority of cases, the queen is auto- 

 matically released without any trouble on 

 our pari. JJesidts this, the queen may be 

 laying in addition. AVhen we discover that 

 the (jueen is out. and all safe, we remove the 

 cage and mark the slate, '^ Imp., out 24th." 

 T Without overstating, I do not think we 

 lose one out of ev( ry fifty (lueens so intro- 



apiaiist, which is necessary by the old meth- 

 ods ; hence I would jiot encourage the be- 

 ginner to release the queen in a Feet cage if 

 she is not already liberated in two or tbree 

 days by the bees, jjiwkling that she and her 

 attendants still have access to a few cells of 

 honey, and that she apparently is in good 

 condition. 



C'0>IIJ-IIOLDERS. 



rerha})s some one may incfuire why, with 

 all our facilities, we do not hang the frame 

 in a comb-holder, and then fasten on the 

 cage. It is too much troul)le to lug the 

 comb-holder about ; and aside from this, we 

 can not afford the time to stop and fuss, 

 just to liang the frame as it is in the hive. I 



THE I'P:kT PliOCESS (IF I XTHODITI N(l 



KENS, SHOWING THE .MANNElt OF I'.ASTENINGrTHE CAOE UPON 

 THE COMBS. 



duced. Neighbor II., win) has also had a 

 large experience with the Peet cage, says 

 that he can not remember that he ever lost a 

 queen by the Peet process. Not only this, 

 it has been our practice, after taking out 

 one queen, to cage another in her place, with 

 results as above recorded. IJeginners and 

 others, unaccustomed to the plan, will not 

 obtain such results ; but I have tlnis gone 

 into details that all miglit pi-ofit by our ex- 

 perience. The whole secret of the Peet pro- 

 cess, I think, rests in the fact that the queen 

 can be or should be so caged as to have ac- 

 cess to a few cells of unsealed hojiey, and 

 that the bees release her ihtynsclrcx^ The 

 act of opening a hive, and disturbing its 

 normal condition, is liable to cause the bees 

 to ball the queen if she be released by the 



very much prefer to^lean a comb, with or 

 without adhering^^bees, against the hive, as 

 seen in the engraving. During hot sunny 

 days, however,' I am careful to lean the 

 frame on the shady side of the hive. I can 

 then at leisure catch and cage a queen for 

 shipment, or introduce one. 



Till!; KLI-AriTZ QUEKN-CATtHEH AND IN- 

 TUODT'CING-CAGE. 



The principle of the Klimitz cage (auto- 

 matically releasing (jueens) is similar to that 

 of the Peet ; but instead of eating away the 

 comb as in the Peet to gain access to the 

 queen, the bees eat out a plug of candy. 



Having put a queen in several of these 

 Klimitz cages, 1 laid them' directly upon the 

 cluster of queenless colonies. The bees, in 



