THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



215 



also a lecturer of some note. Pel- 

 lett isn't very large but you will 

 know he is at the meeting alright. 

 Don't forget the basket dinner. 

 Other subjects will be disc;ussed 

 informally but the three addresses 

 will be well worth your time and 



money to attend. Let everybody 

 come whether you are a bee-keeper 

 or not. Let every bee-keeper in 

 the NEJ4 boost for the Delmar 

 meeting. 



COMMITl'EE. 



Direct Introduction of Queens 



liy J . 31. BUCHANAN, Franklin, Tenn. 



Given at National Convention, St. 

 Louis Feb. 19th, 1914 



For many years the bee-keeping 

 world has longed for a safe and sane 

 method of queen introduction. Any 

 method that will come under that 

 description must be easy of appli- 

 cation; it must be free from any 

 chance of spreading infection; and 

 it must be reasonably sure in its 

 results. In other words, it must 

 be dependable under any ordinary 

 circumstances encountered in pract- 

 ical bee-keeping. 



The method in common use, that 

 is, the "cage and candy" plan, is 

 open to several objections. It is un- 

 certain; the loss of queens when 

 using this plan has been about 

 twenty percent with us. Mr. A. C 

 Miller puts it at forty percent. At 

 any rate, it is much too high. Next, 

 the plan is unsafe; the country is 

 over-run with foul brood, which is 

 usually transmitted through the 

 medium of honey; and who can tell 

 whether the honey used in the 

 queen-cage is free from infection 

 or not? Then again, this plan is 

 wasteful. The queen is kept caged 

 for two or three days, and some- 

 times longer, so that there is gen- 

 erally a period of four or more days 

 lost, that should be devoted to egg- 

 laying. 



Several plans for direct introduc- 

 ing have been used, with more or 

 less success. We will pass over 

 the so-called "drowning method," 

 and the plan of daubing the queen 

 with honey, or flour, as being 

 neither practical or humane. 



I will describe two methods of 

 direct introduction which approx- 

 imate very nearly to the desired 

 "safe and sane" standard. The 



smoke method, as practiced by Mr. 

 Arthur C. Miller, is given as fol- 

 lows: — The colony to receive a 

 queen has the entrance reduced to 

 about a square inch, with any- 

 thing convenient, then about three 

 puffs of thick whito smoke are 

 blown in. and the entrance closed. 

 In from 15 to 20 seconds the colony 

 will be roaring; the small space at 

 the entrance is now opened, the 

 queen is run in, followed by a 

 puff of smoke, and the entrance 

 closed and left so for about ten 

 minutes, when it is reopened and 

 the bees are allowed to ventilate 

 and quiet down. The full entrance 

 is not given for an hour or more. 

 (Concluded on page 218) 



The Summer meeting of the New 

 Jersey Bee-Keepers Association will 

 be held July 8th at the apiary of 

 Robert Spencer, Wharton, Morris 

 Co., N. J. 



An interesting program is being 

 prepared. E. G. Carr, See. 



The Pennsylvania State Bee- 

 Keepers held their 10th annual 

 meeting in the State Capitol, Har- 

 risburg, Feb. 20-21. It was a very 

 lively meeting and from the point 

 of euthusiasm perhaps the best 

 ever held. 



Dr. H. A. Surface, State Zoolo- 

 gist, who is the president was in 

 fharge of the meeting. The address 

 of welcome was given by Hon. H. 

 B. Critchfield who is the Secretary 

 of Agriculture of Pa. 



The subject of Comb and Extract- 

 ed Honey in the same Apiary was 

 discussed by H. P. Faucett. He 

 runs his yard for both kinds of 

 honey and says that colonies that 



