1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



545 



removing a laying queen, why not introduce 

 cells in queen-cell protectors at the time the 

 queens are taken away from the colonies?" 



"This can be done, and is the way I very 

 often do, if I have ripe cells when 1 wish to 

 take away queens, and the weather is not 

 too cold for carrying the cells about while I 

 am doing the work of putting up queens to 

 send away to customers, or for other rea- 

 sons." 



'•"Very well. Now, if a colony will accept 

 a virgin queen emerging from a queen-cell 

 in a queen-cell protector from 20 to 24 hours 

 after the old queen has been taken away, 

 why not introduce a virgin queen at the 

 time of taking away the old one by putting 

 her in a cage with a candy cork so that the 

 bees will release her by eating out the candy 

 in about 34 hours after she is given the col- 

 ony?" 



"Because bees do not look on an old vir- 

 gin queen the same way they do one which 

 is and has just emerged from a queen-cell in 

 their own hive. The virgin just emerged is 

 a weak downy thing to which the bees pay 

 little more attention than they do to a work- 

 er just emerged, for the next ten hours, 

 while your one to live day old virgin queen 

 asserts her queenhood, if I may be allowed 

 that expression, and the bees are in no mood, 

 at tjiis stage of proceedings, to accept a I'un- 

 ning, squealing, unfertile queen to take the 

 place of their old, sedate, much-loved mother. 

 They take to her somewhat after the way 

 grown-up children do to a young new step- 

 mother — not always pleasant relations, you 

 know. I have very little success in introduc- 

 ing these old virgin queens to a colony which 

 has been less than 72 hours queenless. This 

 is the amount of time that Mr. Alley says is 

 required for the safe introduction of virgin 

 queens, and I have found Mr. A. very cor- 

 rect on this point." 



"On page 126 of Scientific Queen-rearing, 

 when speaking of introducing virgin queens 

 you say we should remove ail combs from 

 the hive to receive the caged virgin queen, 

 then fasten the cage containing the queen to 

 the side of the hive, put in a frame having a 

 starter of foundation in it, using a feeder 

 beyond this, when the queen will be accept- 

 ed as soon as the bees eat her out of the cage, 

 from 12 to 24 hours later. Now, what I 

 want to know is, would there be any objec- 

 tion to using a frame of honey next to this 

 startered frame? And could we not go still 

 further and use not only a frame of honey 

 but a frame having only sealed brood in it, 

 in additi'>n to the one having honey? This 

 would do away with the feeding and the 

 looking after the colony so quickly, as your 

 plan requires." 



"I should like to say yes to this; but my 

 experience says that, when the bees are giv- 

 en any thing that resembles their old home 

 life with their much-loved mother, they will 

 hold out much longer against an old virgin 

 queen than they will if every thing that has 

 the smell or looks of where their mother has 

 been is taken away from them. With a comb 

 of brood and honey, as you propose, 1 have 



had them worry aud kill old virgin queens 

 when released 48 hours after they were hope- 

 lessly queenless. And they will often worry 

 and kill such virgin queens when pvit in with- 

 out a bit of comb, and feed only in a feeder, 

 as given in Scientific Queen-rearing, if the 

 queen is let out much sooner than 20 to 24 

 hours. I have had them killed when let out 

 at 10 to 12 hours, when they had absolutely 

 nothing from which to rear another queen 

 except the cage she was in, the feeder, and 

 the bare walls of the hive. These things 

 have seemed surpassing strange to me, that 

 they will go to work and kill their only 

 chance for an existence as a colony; but 

 thus they will often do when an old virgin 

 queen is substituted in place of their fertile 

 mother." 



"The queens I received from you last year 

 were introduced as follows: Ten or twelve 

 days before the queens were expected to ar- 

 rive I placed three frames of brood and one 

 of honey in a hive on top of a queen-exclud- 

 ing honey-board, over strong colonies. 

 When the queens came I took off these hives 

 and placed them on new stands, putting a 

 queen in each, and every queen was accept- 

 ed." 



"Yes, that would be just what I should 

 expect; for under these conditions the bees 

 which you set with the combs and hives on 

 new stands were, to all intents and pur- 

 poses, queenless bees, just in a condition to 

 accept a queen let out among them from a 

 cage by their eating her out from 20 to 24 

 hours later." 



" Why do you call such bees queenless? 

 they had a queen below the excluder." 



"I know they did. And while this was so, 

 these same bees would build, complete, and 

 allow to emerge, virgin queens from queen- 

 cells, just the same as will a colony from 

 which you have taken a queen. Here is one 

 of the strange things about bees above a 

 queen-excluder: They are queen-right or 

 queenless, just in accord with the way they 

 are treated by the apiarist. Drop a queen 

 among them when they are over the ex- 

 cluder, and they will proceed to kill her at 

 once. Set them oft" on a new stand, allow- 

 ing them to I'emain there for 24 hours, and 

 then drop the same queen among them and 

 they will receive her at once, and very often 

 they will do this if she is dropped in within 

 half an hour after setting off." 



"Well, then, why not use a virgin queen 

 instead of a laying queen? In this way we 

 could form colonies at an out-apiary, thus 

 giving me time to prepare ahead; and when 

 the virgins wei'e hatched I could take them 

 out and make while I was there the colonies 

 I desired." 



"I have made colonies in just this way 

 with success very many times, only 1 make 

 the candy cork long enough so the bees would 

 be from 40 to 48 hours in liberating the 

 queen, for an old virgin queen is not taken 

 as kindly to under any circumstances as is 

 either a newiy emerged virgin or a laying 

 queen." 



"Then you think this plan will work?" 



