1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



123 



INTRODUCING. 



Scent of Bees ; does it Affect the Introduction 

 of Queens? 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



In Gleanings for Sept. 15, p. 886, I find 

 an editorial headed "Introducing with the 

 old queen in the hive; scent of bees." The 

 matter which follows this heading tells us 

 of having the new queen caged in the hive, 

 and leaving "the old queen to lay right 

 along up to within a few hours of the time 

 when the neiv queen is to be released" (my 

 italics). Why waste those hours? The suc- 

 cess of this method is attributed to the new 

 queen having acquired the scent of the colo- 

 ny. It seems to me that it is time bee- 

 keepers knew something tangible about this 

 matter of scent if so important and so fre- 

 quent an operation as queen-introduction de- 

 pends upon it. 



Is scent a personal body emanation, or is 

 it acquired by external contamination? Can 

 a bee or a queen in a few hours or a few 

 days acquire from the atmosphere an odor 

 sufficient to overcome her individual body 

 odor? If scent plays so important a part in 

 bee-life, why is a super full of bees readily 

 accepted by a colony to which it is trans- 

 ferred? and why are these same transferred 

 bees permitted to go with stores from their 

 new home back to their old home to be wel- 

 comed there, and to keep up this travel to 

 and fro for an indefinite period? And they 

 do just that thing. Mr. F. B. Simpson first 

 called my attention to this, and I have since 

 proved it many times. If scent is the fac- 

 tor of acceptance or rejection, why are bees 

 permitted to enter freely the hives of trans- 

 posed colonies? If scent governs, why can 

 drones enter anywhere unchallenged? 



In regard to drone and queen odors, sexu- 

 al odors are one thing while colony odors are 

 another. In the case of a queen it is cur- 

 rently assumed that she has a home odor, 

 and that it is necessary to remove, hive, or 

 submerge that and substitute therefor an- 

 other odor (that of the receiving colony be- 

 fore releasing the queen, on the ground that 

 otherwise the receiving bees will detect the 

 alien by her home odor. The point that the 

 editor makes is. that it is alien odor to which 

 the bees are antagonistic. Yet a drone, just 

 as much saturated with home odor, is, un- 

 der most conditions, received without ques- 

 tion by any colony. Also under several con- 

 ditions worker bees, full or empty, and pre- 

 sumably thoroughly soaked with their home 

 odor, go freely in and out of alien colonies, 



and this often, also, in times of scarcity, 

 when, as a rule, all callers are challenged 

 and closely scrutinized. 



From experiments and practice extending 

 over sixteen years on this very matter of 

 scent in queen-introduction, I am satisfied 

 that it plays but a very indirect part. 



In 1887 Mr. Simmins' book appeared, and 

 it contained his method of "direct introduc- 

 tion " of queens. As described by him the 

 queen was to be kept alone, warm and with- 

 out food, for thirty minutes, when she was 

 to be run in at the top of the hive of a colo- 

 ny (which kneiv of its queenlessness), and 

 preceded and followed by a puff of smoke. 

 This operation was, preferably, to be dore 

 near nightfall. Further, he advised using a 

 fresh receptacle for each queen, or thor- 

 oughly scalding the other before using it 

 again. 



This method, conducted as described, is 

 good, but I have found that several factors 

 can be ignored and yet uniformly successful 

 results be achieved. I have found that I 

 can use the same cage for an indefinite pe- 

 riod, and cage a new queen immediately on 

 releasing another ; that I can run in the 

 queens at any hour of the day; that I can 

 introduce the new queen immediately on re- 

 moving the old one; and if the new queen is 

 taken from her work in a nearby hive I shall 

 find her laying in her new home inside of 

 half an hour. I have found this method 

 equally applicable to queens from the mails 

 as to those from my own hives; also in ten 

 instances this last spring I successfully in- 

 troduced virgins received by mail, and this 

 to colonies some of which had not been de- 

 queened an hour. Where ivas the scent fac- 

 tor? 



For many years I have been thus introduc- 

 ing fertile queens ; and, except in cases 

 where I have varied conditions for the pur- 

 pose of study, I have been uniformly suc- 

 cessful. To just a very small extent I can 

 see that scent may have some bearing, in 

 that it possibly acquaints the queen of the 

 fact that she is in a strange place, and so 

 cause fear unless that is overborne by hun- 

 ger. Most bee-keepers are familiar with 

 the ease with which a queen in the full ex- 

 ercise of her powers may be transferred 

 from one colony to another. If, however, 

 such a queen is frightened, trouble is sure to 

 ensue, scent or no scent. Here is the de- 

 scription of a very pretty example of the 

 effects of timidity and subsequent fasting: 



To a colony queenless for a few days I 

 tried to give a laying queen from the next 

 colony by just picking her up and letting her 

 run in at the top of the new home. It 

 frightened her, and she started on the run 

 across the tops of the frames, and immedi- 

 ately the bees gave chase and balled her. I 

 rescued and caged her, and let her fast for 

 half an hour, returned to the same hive, 

 removed the cover, and watched her pass 

 in and beg for food. There was no trou- 

 ble at all then, and she was in full swing the 

 next day. This was an exceptionally timid 

 queen, one that would always run and hide 



