THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



115 



ventive of bee diarrhoea, if accumu- 

 lations alone were the cause of that 

 disorder. The specimens show that 

 in healthy accumulations, the injesta 

 of pollen or bee bread is the princi- 

 cipal source ; but as bee diarrhcea 

 is something more than a simple ac- 

 cumulation of the refuse products of 

 digestion, the relation of pollen to 

 " the cause " is about as visionary as 

 the man in the moon. 



WATER FOR BEES. 



The apiarist should not fail to 

 place water in suitable vessels near 

 the apiary during a season of drought. 

 Bees must have water, and it is better 

 to furnish them with it nice and clean 

 than to have them sipping it from 

 some slough hole or cesspool. 



RED CLOVER QUEENS. 



Some one claims to have a strain 

 of Italian bees that will gather 

 honey from red clover. It is no 

 doubt true, as bees of every strain 

 and race will work upon the second 

 or seed-crop of red clover. None of 

 them will do a heavy business at it, 

 as red clover (second crop) is in 

 bloom at a season when the weather 

 is not favorable to the secretion of 

 honey. 



AMERICAN APICULTURIST 

 BEE FARM NOTES. 



SEVERAL METHODS FOR INTRODUC- 

 ING FERTILE AND UNFERTILE 

 QUEENS. 



Br Henry Alley. 



There are many methods for in- 

 troducing queens and about every 

 dealer has a favorite way of his 

 own. In the "Apiculturist" for April 

 we hinted at a method for intro- 

 ducing unfertile queens and prom- 

 ised to say more about it in some 

 future number. As the season for 

 doing such work is close at hand, 

 we give below methods that have 

 been practised with success for 

 twenty-seven years. 



methods for INTRODUCING FERTILE 



QUEENS. 



For many years we introduced 

 laying or fertile queens immedi- 

 ately after unqueening a hive. On 

 one occasion I removed the queens 

 from eight full colonies and intro- 

 duced a new queen to each one suc- 

 cessfully in less than two hours. 

 Tobacco smoke was used for subdu- 

 ing the bees while the queens were 

 being removed, and as soon as the 

 bees were quiet more smoke was 

 given them and the new queens let 

 in the hives at once. More or less 

 smoke was blown in among the 

 bees during a period of fifteen 

 minutes, but not enough was given 

 any colony to make the bees fall 

 from the combs. This operation 

 should not be performed in the mid- 

 dle of the day unless bees are 

 gathering honey, otherwise robbing 

 would be induced. The secret of 

 this "immediate" introduction of 

 queens is in deceiving the bees, by 

 fumigating them and making all 

 "smell" alike, and nothing is so 

 effective as tobacco smoke. The 

 etfects of the tobacco will pass in 

 a few hours and the bees will be at 

 work as though nothing had hap- 

 pened. 



ANOTHER METHOD FOR INTRODUCING 

 FERTILE QUEENS. 



Some ten years ago I was called 

 to go fifty miles from home to in- 

 troduce Italian queens for a lady. 

 I did so by the following method : 

 I prepared some small cages by 

 making an inch-and-a-quarter hole 

 through a block of Avood two and 

 one-half inches long, one and seven- 

 eighths inches wide and one-half 

 inch thick. Both sides of the block 

 were covered with wire cloth. The 

 aperture was about three-fourths 

 inch from one end. A piece was cut 

 from the long end, three-fourtlis 

 inch wide, but not quite through 

 the wood (see a in illustration). 

 After the queen was placed in the 

 cage this aperture was filled with 



