MAILING QUEENS INTRODUCING QUEENS. 93 



use iii queen cages a mixture of granulated sugar and extracted honey; 

 hence this candy has since been known as the Good candy. The bees 

 fed on it leave loose granules of sugar in the cage, and these becoming 

 moist often daub the whole interior in such a way as to cause the death 

 of queen and workers. It is therefore not adapted to long journeys. 



The food for the journey having been placed in the end opposite that 

 containing the ventilating holes, a bit of comb foundation is pressed 

 down over it to assist in retaining the moisture, the food compartment 

 having also previously been coated with wax for the same purpose. 

 The cover, with perhaps ajbit of wire cloth between it and the bees to 

 give greater security, together with the address and a 1-cent stamp, 

 completes the arrangement for a queen and eight to twelve attendant 

 workers to take a journey of 3,000 miles. A special postal regulation 

 admits them to the mails at merchandise rates (1 cent per ounce). For 

 transportation to distant countries of the Pacific a larger cage and 

 more care are necessary to success. A recent estimate by one of the 

 apiarian journals places the number of queens sold and thus trans- 

 ported in the United States annually at 20,000. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



Most of the mailing cages are arranged so that when received the 

 removal of the wooden lid and also of a small cork at one end will permit 

 the bees to eat their way out when assisted by those of the hive to which 

 the queen is to be given. The cage is laid, with the wire cloth down, 

 on the frames of a colony that has previously been made queeuless. 

 In twenty-four to forty-eight hours the queen will usually have been 

 liberated", but it is safer not to disturb the combs for four or five days 

 lest the bees, on the watch for intruders when their combs are exposed, 

 regard the new queen as such, and, crowding about her in a dense ball, 

 sting her instantly or smother her. 



Colonies having only young bees accept queens readily, so that when 

 a swarm has issued and the parent stock has been removed to a new 

 stand the time for queen introduction is propitious. During a great 

 honey flow queens are accepted without much question, if any at all. 

 They may at such times nearly always be safely run in just at dark by 

 lifting one corner of the cover or quilt of a queenless hive and driving 

 the bees back with smoke. The new queen, having been kept without 

 food and away from all other bees for a half hour previously, is then 

 slipped in and the hive left undisturbed for several days. This and 

 similar methods of direct introduction without cages, having been 

 developed and advocated by Mr. Samuel Simmins, of England, are 

 known as the Simmins methods of direct introduction of queens. 



In the fall and at all times when honey is not coming in freely, caging 

 the queen for a few hours or days is desirable. A cage which permits 

 the queen to remain directly on the comb itself is infinitely superior t 



3407 No. 1 Oo 8 



