AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



365 



CONDUCTED BY 



Hire. JemEsfe Mfeteltj, 

 Floyd, Hunt Co., Tex. 



Introducing Queens. 



As quite a number have asked the best 

 method of introducing queens, I will 

 here say that I hardly know which way 

 is best, but, as I have been quite suc- 

 cessful in the last five years, not losing 

 a single queen that I now remember of, 

 I will give my plans. 



The first is the "candy plan;" but I 

 do not like the directions that go out 

 with the candy plan. I first know that 

 my hive is queenless, then I lay the cage 

 on the frames, wire downward, remove 

 the tin from the candy end of cage, and 

 let them severely alone for one week, 

 and I always find the queen out and 

 laying. 



A great number of queens lost by in- 

 troducing, I am satisfied, is because the 

 hive is opened too early. Put in the 

 queen, and do not, under any circum- 

 stances, touch it for a week, is my ad- 

 vice. 



Another good way is to keep the 

 queen caged over hatching brood, and 

 have no wire cloth on the cage. But as 

 this is more trouble, we have not used it 

 any this year. I would never make the 

 colony queenless before putting in the 

 new queen, as there is more danger in 

 your leaving some little, dumpy cell in 

 the hive that will hatch before the 

 queen is released, than there is in put- 

 ting in the queen at the same operation 

 the old one is removed. Then there is 

 no danger of a queen hatching for 10 

 days, and by that time the introduced 

 queen will be out all O. K. But, usually, 

 the new queen is out and laying before 

 the bees have time to start cells at all. 



Of course, when the colony has be- 

 come queenless by accident, you should 

 give them a queen the first chance, but 

 be sure they have no virgin or queen- 

 cell, otherwise you will fail. Should I 

 have one of those bad colonies to intro- 

 duce a queen to, such as Mr. Doolittle 

 speaks of, I would put the queen into 

 the hive three days in the cage ; I would 

 take away all brood, and give them 

 empty combs, or combs of honey. Then 

 I would shake the bees all off the combs 

 in front of the hive, and turn the queen 



loose with them, and as soon as they 

 were all in I would shake them again, 

 just as before, and then shut up the 

 hive. In a few hours give them a frame 

 of brood, and then let them alone. 



Bees Leaving the Hive — Sumac. 



On June 20th I placed an entrance- 

 guard on the entrance of a colony that 

 had a great many drones which I 

 wanted to get rid of, and then shook the 

 bees in front of the hive. 



I soon noticed an Italian queen on the 

 alighting-board, and as the bees which I 

 was working with were blacks, I knew 

 she was a stranger, and the bees seemed 

 to know it, too, for they "balled" her 

 at once. I succeeded in getting her out, 

 but she flew away before I could get her 

 caged, and I saw her no more. 



I saw that some of the bees around 

 the hive were yellow. This caused me 

 to look around, and I soon found where 

 the strange bees and queen came from. 

 There was a weak colony a few yards 

 away, and it was from this colony that 

 the strangers came. Part of the bees 

 went back to their own hive, but the 

 queen did not return. I gave them a 

 queen-cell, and in a short time they had 

 a virgin queen, but it got lost before she 

 was old enough to lay, The bees then 

 came out and went to the hive that they 

 went to before. What caused them to 

 leave the first time, I do not know. 

 They left the last time probably because 

 they had no queen or brood with which 

 to rear one. 



A few days ago a weak colony 

 swarmed out and settled on the ground. 

 I was somewhat surprised to find a 

 queen with them, for I had supposed 

 that they were queenless, thinking this 

 was the cause of leaving their hive. 1 

 put them back into their old hive (the 

 queen did not get back), and they are 

 there yet, and have built several queen- 

 cells. When they came out they had 

 considerable brood and some honey. 

 When I put them back I gave them a 

 frame of brood and honey, and as they 

 have stayed all right since, I think they 

 swarmed out because they had but very 

 little honey, although there was plenty 

 of nectar in the flowers. 



Bees have gathered but very little 

 surplus honey here this year. In the 

 spring I had 4 strong colonies, and 2 

 that were very weak. I now have 7 

 colonies that are very strong, and 2 that 

 are not very strong. My colony of Ital- 

 ians has done better than any of the 



