ONE YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 137 



her, the bees may be smoked away from her, and she may be placed 

 back in the cage to remain perhaps another twenty-four hours, when 

 the same process is repeated. 



This is the general course taken in introducing queens, but at the 

 present time queen breeders have what they call "introducing cages." 

 These cages are so arranged that candy is placed in the entrance, and 

 the bees in time, by eating out the candy, themselves liberate the 

 queen, and chances are taken as to her safety. By introducing an 

 Italian queen thus to a colony of bees, the whole stock becomes pure 

 Italian, and as the queen never changes her stock the bees will be the 

 same as long as she lives and is of service in the colony. 



DIVIDING BEES FOR INCREASE. 



There is not such a mania for dividing bees at the present time as 

 in former years. After the introduction of the Italian bees into this 

 country, the demand for them was immense, and those who bred them 

 used every effort to increase their colonies, and dividing was princi- 

 pally practiced. Since the bees have become numerous and cheaper, 

 apiarists have turned their attention to raising honey, and to increas- 

 ing more moderately by the process of natural swarming. 



Natural swarming will always give better results than dividing, but 

 if you have some strong colonies that do not swarm, and you want 

 more colonies, you can very easily divide them, and do it successfully 

 too. You may divide one colony into several parts and build them all 

 up to good, strong colonies ; but at the same time, I would only cut it 

 in two. This is done by simply lifting out half of the frames of comb 

 containing both brood and honey, and placing them in a new hive. As 

 there is but one queen, she will be in one or the other division, and 

 if we have an extra queen to introduce to the queenless half, so much 

 the better. If we have no queen, the combs containing brood of the 

 proper age, the bees will rear one for themselves. A little more than 

 half of the bees should go with the new colony, as many of the old 

 bees will return to the parent hive, or former location, and the new 

 hive thus will remain rather weak, and will not do much work for 

 several days on this account. 



WINTER CARE OF BEES. 



Bees should be in winter quarters, if chaff hives are used, long be- 

 fore cold weather sets in, and early in autumn is the best time to 

 prepare the hives for winter. When the cellar is used, they should 

 not be placed there until just at the beginning of steady winter. When 

 bees are thus placed in good winter quarters they need but little atten- 

 tion during the same. Bees must be kept perfectly quiet in cold 

 weather, and at no time should the hives be opened or in any way 



