THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



257 



queens is to leave the colony queen- 

 less three days and no queen is 

 placed in or near the hive till the 

 expiration of seventy-two hours, and 

 then a few pufTs of tobacco smoke 

 are blown in among the combs and 

 the queen allowed to enter at once. 



If queens are introduced by the 

 cage method, that is by allowing the 

 bees to release the queen by eating 

 out the sugar, she should not be 

 placed in the hive until the colony 

 has been queenless three days ; 

 otherwise she would be destroyed. 



2. It would make no difference as to 

 the success of the operation if one 

 hundred attendants were in the cage 

 at the time the queen is introduced. 



I'he loss of the queen by the first 

 method was owing to placing the 

 caged queen in the hive at the time 

 the colony was made queenless. 

 Had you examined the cage at any 

 time before the bees released the 

 queen, you would have found the 

 bees trying to ball her by hugging 

 the wire netting with which the cage 

 is covered. It is never safe to release 

 a queen under such circumstances, 

 as sure death will be the result. 



The queen which was caged alone 

 and released by the bees was stung 

 as soon as she emerged from the 

 cage. The bees realizing the situa- 

 tion had commenced to make prep- 

 aration to rear another queen. This 

 case is exactly similar to No. i, only 

 there were no attendant bees with the 

 queen. 



B)' the three-day method for in- 

 troducing queens, it would make no 

 difference whether the bees were 

 gathering honey or not, it is sure to 

 succeed every time, nothing is lost by 

 allowing a colony to remain queen- 

 less three or more days during the 

 breeding season, as when a young 

 and vigorous queen is introduced she 

 will soon fill all the combs with brood. 



Another point in introducing 

 queens by the seventy-two hour 

 method is this : If the new queens 

 are introduced as directed, it is not 



necessary to open the hive to destroy 

 the queen-cells that may have been 

 commenced, as the bees will cease 

 work upon them as soon as they real- 

 ize that they have a queen. 



If, for any reason, the colony is al- 

 lowed to remain queenless four or 

 more days, the combs should be ex- 

 amined and all the queen-cells de- 

 stroyed, as the fertile queen will not, 

 in all cases, be allowed to meddle 

 with them, and some of the cells 

 would mature and the first queen 

 that emerges would soon dispatch 

 the laying (}ueen, though she has had 

 possession of the combs for twelve 

 days. 



Another season the Simmons' 

 method for immediate introduction 

 will be thoroughly tested in the Bay 

 State Apiary and the result given to 

 the readers of the "Api." 



QUESTION BY H. E. HARRINGTON. 



What is tlie cause of queens bein^ 

 lost after they have been iiitroducecl 

 and laying seven or eight days? Will 

 robbing in a mild form do it? 



ANSWER BY G. M. DOOLHTLE. 



I never had any such loss as Mr. 

 Harrington speaks of when the queen 

 was one taken from my own yard, 

 but I have frequently had such when 

 the queen came from a distance. 

 There is something about the caging 

 and shipping of a prolific queen that 

 injures th-^ majority of such, when so 

 shipped. What it is I do not know, 

 but of one thing I am certain : I have 

 sent from my yard some of the best 

 queens I ever owned, which I knew 

 were all right in every respect and 

 had them reported as dead, in from 

 ten days to a month, or else that they 

 laid very sparingly and were of no 

 value. I also know that I have re- 

 ceived queens from other parties 

 (who I believe would sooner lose a 

 right arm than misrepresent), which 

 proved in my yard the same as others 



