THE bEE-KREPERvS' REVIEW. 



183 



a ^reat deal of hard lahor, her physical 

 health is quite good, and her mind be- 

 coming stronger and clearer. She is no 

 longer at the main building, but at one 

 of the cottages built to accommodate the 

 better class of patients. She also has 

 what is called "ground permi.ssion;" that 

 is, the privilege of .going where .she 

 pleases upon the grounds. For the last 

 six months she has ha<l charge of the 

 asylum library, giving out the books, 

 keeping the records, etc. In one corner 

 of the library, with the consent of the 

 superintendent, I have put a small cabi- 

 net containing two type-cases, and she 

 has learned to set type. I visit her once 

 in two weeks, usually going Saturday 

 afternoon, taking her down town, and 

 keeping her over Sundav. When I go I 

 take with me two single "galle3s" of 

 type; enough to make three pages of the 

 Review. By the time that I make my 

 next visit, she has "thrown in" this type 

 and set it up again ready for me to take 

 home with me. In this way she sets 

 enough type each month to print six pages 

 of the Review. There were .several little 

 details that were rather difficult to over- 

 coane at finst, but all is now working 

 quite smoothly. She al.so addre.sses the 

 wrappers for the Review, sends out any 

 circulars that I may wi.sh to send out, etc. 

 In this way .she is kept constantly busy. 

 In her actions or conversation, no one, not 

 even the doctor, can detect anything ab- 

 normal, and there is every encouragement 

 that .sometime it will be thought best for 

 her to come home. Of course, we both 

 realize that home will never again be ex- 

 actly what it was once, but, nevertheless, 

 we shiU both strive, to the utmost, to 

 make the best -of our lives. 



•««»«»*••««« 



.\ CERT.\IN .\NI) I'KACTIC.Vr^ METHOD OF 

 INTRODfCINO .\ (^rEEN. 



To introduce a queen to a colon v of 

 bees, two things must be well considered 

 — the condition of the bees and the con- 

 dition of the queen. The condition and 

 behavior of the queen are very important. 



If the (jueen will only walk about upon the 

 combs in a quiet and queenly manner, 

 and go on with her egg laying, she is al- 

 most certain to be accepted if the other 

 conditions are favorable. Let her run 

 and "s(|ueal," and utter that ))eculiar 

 "7,eep, zeep, zeep," and the bees immedi- 

 ately start in pursuit. 



To introduce a queen from one col- 

 ony to another in the same apiary does 

 not call for the skill needed when a queen 

 has been absent several days from a col- 

 ony, and is jaded by a long journey. I 

 have frequently taken a queen from a 

 colony, and caged her to send away, and 

 then immediately taken a laying queen 

 from a nucleus and placed her upon the 

 spot npoii the comb from whence I had 

 removed the other queen, and had the 

 satisfaction of soon seeing her surrounded 

 by a circle of admiring retainers. I be- 

 lieve that there are times, particularly 

 when honey is coming in freely, when a 

 colony with a laying queen would accept 

 another fresh laying queen, simply i-v 

 having her placed upon the combs; and 

 all would go well until the queens came 

 in contact. 



So far as the queen is concerned, it is 

 important that she be brought before the 

 bees in a natural manner; in such a place 

 and way as tliay would expect to find her. 

 Wlien queens have come from a distance 

 they are more difficult to introduce. For 

 the purpose of introducing such queens, 

 the old Feet cage was excellent. It was a 

 poor .shipping cage, but, as an introdu- 

 cing cage, that could also be u.sed as a 

 mailing cage, it has had no superior. As 

 an introducing cage it did have one ob- 

 jection, and that was that the bees might 

 liberate the queen tt)o soon; that is, be- 

 fore they would accept her. It is possi- 

 ble, however, to use such a cage that this 

 objection may be overcome, but the cage 

 cannot be used for a mailing cage. This 

 is another illustration of the fact that 

 these combination tools are .seldom .so 

 satisfactory as special tools. The style of 

 cage, and the method of using it, that I 

 am about to describe, are not new. I 



