August, 1922 



G Ti E A N T N (! S IN B K E O U I. T U R E 



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QUEEN INTRODUCTION 



Two Little Kinks that Should Save the Lives of 

 Many Queens in Introducing 



Someone, 1 think it was Doolittle, gave 

 us a sure way of queen introduction. His 

 metliod was to take several frames of cap- 

 ped brood, brusli off all bees, put the frames 

 into a hive, close the entrance and carry it 

 into the house or somewhere that the tem- 

 perature might be right. Then the queen 

 is to be turned loose on the frames of brood, 

 tlie cover placed on tlie hive and left for 

 four or live days. It was then to be put 

 outside if the robbers were not too bad, and 

 an entrance large euougli for one bee to 

 pass was given. If this is carefully done it 

 is a very sure method, the principal feature 

 that condemns it being the time and work 

 it entails. 



Someone, I do not know whom, thought 

 to improve upon this method and recommend- 

 ed tliat the combs of capped brood be set 

 over a strong colony, with a wire screen be- 

 tween the hive-bodies, that the queen and 

 brood might have the benefit of the warmth 

 of the colony below. Now instead of improv- 

 ing upon the first method, he completely 

 ruined it; for, if the combs of emerging 

 bees are put over a colony, it is one of the 

 poorest of all methods of queen introduc- 

 tion. I confess I am puzzled to know what 

 makes the queen die when put in this upper 

 story, but a large percentage of queens die 

 for some secret reason of their own or are 

 killed by the bees on the other side of the 

 screen. It does not seem possible that bees 

 can sting through the wire screen; but my 

 assistants, who nail up the queen cages, fre- 

 quently get their fingers stung through the 

 wire screen. This last season I had seven 

 different parties write me, stating that they 

 lost queens when they were placed above 

 the screen as has been recommended. I have 

 advised that they carry the hive into the 

 house instead of putting it over another 

 colony, and no loss has been reported. 



Dr. Miller gave us the newspaper method 

 of uniting bees, and it works to perfection, 

 with never a bee killed. A number of years 

 ago I thought to improve upon this, and I 

 had a number of screens made to fit the 

 hives, and set the queenless hive on top. I 

 was greatly surprised upon looking at them 

 next day to see from one-fourth to one-half 

 of the bees dead in the upper story. What 

 killed them was a puzzle. No doubt the 

 same thing that caused the death of the 

 bees causes the death of queens when intro- 

 duced above the screen. 



Kink No. 2. 



When you t;ikc out the frames of brood 

 to remove the old queen before introducing 



the new OJie, be sure to put the frames 

 back into the hive in the same order in 

 which you found them or you will lose some 

 queens. This applies to any method of in- 

 troducing a queen to a full colony. Now if 

 you do not do this let us see what happens. 

 You put the frames back any old way and 

 you put a frame of honey in the center of 

 brood-nest and leave frames with brood in 

 all stages on both sides of this frame of 

 honey. Before the queen is released the 

 bees start queen-cells on the frames on both 

 sides of the comb of honey. When the 

 queen is released, she never dreams that 

 any one has been monkeying with the 

 brood-nest and supposes it is in one part, the 

 same as any well-behaved bees would have 

 it. She takes a swing around the circle and 

 orders all queen-cells to be destroyed. But 

 she never surmises that there is another 

 brood-nest the other side of that comb of 

 honey, and goes on laying. Sooner or later 

 a young queen emerges from a queen-cell 

 on the other side of that comb of honey, and 

 the first thing our nice laying queen knows 

 she sees a virgin come over the top, which 

 means her finish. It does not always happen 

 thus, but I have lost many queens in this 

 way before I found out the reason. Some- 

 times the queen would be laying for a week 

 before the virgin could kill her. Many 

 queens that are purchased are lost from this 

 cause. Sometimes a beekeeper will be puz- 

 zled to know why the queen was superseded 

 (?) soon after she began to lay. She was 

 not superseded, she was killed. In removing 

 frames from the hive, it is a good plan to 

 take out the frame nearest you and set it 

 down beside the hive. Then as you exam- 

 ine the others, put them back in the same 

 place you found them. When through, put 

 the frame that you first removed back in 

 the place nearest you. Jay .Smith. 



Vincennes, Ind. 



CAPPING - MELTER AND BOILER 



How to Provide Plenty of Steam for ExtraAing 

 Purposes 



Tlie following letter and my reply may 

 be of interest to some of the readers of 

 Gleanings: 



Dear Friend: — I read in Gleanings for July, 

 1921, your description of the capping-melter you 

 use, and thought it came the nearest to what I 

 wanted of anything I had seen yet. 



I understand you have a bo.x 18 inches wide. 

 4 feet long and 11 inches deep, with one end open. 

 Do the melted wax and honey run out all 

 across this open end, or have you a spout at a 

 certain place? Do you tilt the whole box or just 

 the bottom ? What is the proper angle so as to 

 have it run off quickly enough? 



What shape is your 10-gallon boiler, and what 

 material is it made of? Is it necessary to have 



