JULY i;',, IS<4 



53 f 



GENEEAL COMIREgPONDENCE 



WHY THE SMOKE METHOD OF INTRODUCING IS SUCCESSFUL 



^eiljMeeiiiog wittlioiat Deqiieeiiiiii 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER 



Continued fr 



The question is often asked why the bees 

 accept queens introduced by the " smoke 

 plan." Briefly, it is tliis: Confined and 

 smoked bees are in " distress," as shown by 

 their " roar," and bees in distress know no 

 strangers. Queens will be accepted under 

 many other conditions sometimes, but by 

 '' distress " conditions always. Smoking and 

 confining is the easiest and quickest way for 

 the beekeepers to produce such conditions, 

 hence its use. 



All do not agree with this assertion, and 

 stick to the theory cf odor, despite the evi- 

 dences against it. I append a few of tlie 

 different claims, and also some of the con- 

 ditions where the odor theory does not 

 apply. 



It has been asserted that the smoke so 

 fumigates bees and queen that they all smell 

 alike, and that the success of the plan is in 

 the uniform odor. But running in queens 

 with smoke and not confining the bees was 

 never widely successful; and, so far as 

 known, smoke smells no stronger now than 

 formerly. Furthermore, as good results can 

 be secured by closing the entrance and get- 

 ting the bees roaring by much pounding or 

 jarring, and then running in the queen as 

 by use of smoke; but it is neither so quick 

 nor so easy. Again, bees shaken from their 

 combs, and confined in a cage, will become 

 quiet and form a cluster, hanging as still as 

 a swarm, save, perhaps, for a few uneasy 

 bees. A queen may be put into such a cage, 

 and will be accepted by the bee as soon as 

 she reaches them. Neither uniform odor 

 nor turmoil is present. 



Again, a queen may be removed from 

 among her bees, and in her place the queen 

 from another colony in the same yard be 

 placed, wliile the first queen is put in the 

 second one's place. The bees notice no 

 change, and the queens continue their work 

 as before. The bees have failed to notice 

 any different queen odor or the odor of the 

 operator's fingers, which, on the bees' part, 

 is very inconsiderate of the feelings of the 

 champions of the " odor theory." 



From a swarm marching into a hive the 

 queen may be removed and another dropped 

 among them. The procession keeps right on 

 with the band playing, and the new queen 



om last issue 



is perfectly at home with them. And this 

 is true, even if the new queen is anointed 

 with an odor commonly repugnant to the 

 bees. 



A queen-cell from one colony may have 

 the queen out of it in a minute after it is 

 put in another colony ; but if the second 

 colony is ready for a vii'gin queen they pay 

 no attention to her and her supposed alien 

 Oidor. 



A comb of brood from one colony may 

 be put in another colony; but there follows 

 no sign of resentment on the part of the 

 bees toward the strange-smelling( ?) comb 

 or the rapidly emerging young bees. 



In other words, the odor of alien drones, 

 of young workers, of queens of various ages, 

 and under sundry conditions, does not at- 

 tract the attention nor arouse the antago- 

 nism of the bees. By ignoring all theories of 

 odor, and following the plan of " distress," 

 we can successfully introduce ninety-nine 

 per cent of all queens to colonies in almost 

 any Condition, and that is good enough for 

 practical dollar-and-cent beekeeping. 



Some 3'ears ago attempts were made to 

 introduce young queens to colonies having a 

 queen, for the purpose of having the new 

 comer supersede the old queen. Ripe cells 

 were used, and virgin queens; but the suc- 

 cesses were few and the failures many, part- 

 ly from the difficulty of introducing virgins 

 and partly from obscure causes. The matter 

 was soon abandoned, save that now and then 

 some individual makes another attempt. 

 The use of virgin queens was based on a 

 theory of getting rid of the old queen just 

 before swarming time and so avoid that 

 trouble. But just before that i^eriod is just 

 when the bees are not ready to accept or 

 tolerate a virgin. Where one was acceiiteo. 

 and did supersede the old queen, conditions 

 may have been such that no swarm would 

 have issued that season any way. In other 

 words, the internal conditions of the colo- 

 nies were unknown. 



I, with the rest, was much interested in 

 the attempts; for if it could be made to 

 work it might eliminate swarming; but my 

 efforts were no more successful than those 

 of the other experimenters, and I dropped 

 them. When I finally got the direct intro- 



