THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



75 



inexperienced this may be the better plan, 

 as, when driving the bees away with smoke, 

 it often happens that one oJ' the bees will 

 grasp the queen and endeavor to sting her, 

 smoke or no smoke, and, in his attempt to 

 rescue the queen, the novice may injure her. 



To introduce a queen from one colony to 

 another in the same apiary does not call for 

 the skill needed when tlie queen has been 

 absent several days from a colony, and is 

 jaded by a long journey. I have frequently 

 taken a queen from a colony, and caged it 

 to send away, and then immediately taken a 

 laying queen from a nucleus and placed her 

 upon the spot upon 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 believe 

 there are times, particularly when honey is 

 coming in freely, when a colony with a lay- 

 ing queen would accept another fresh laying 

 queen, simply by having her placed upon 

 the combs ; and all would go well until the 

 queens came in contact. Then there would 

 be a conflict in which the chances of the new 

 comer would be equally as good as those of 

 the old queen. I have sometimes doubted if 

 bees recognized each other, or the queen, by 

 the scent. I have clipped a queen's wing, 

 and, upon returning her (placing her direct- 

 ly upon the combs), she was attacked by her 

 own bees. Perhaps she acquired a different 

 scent by being handled. If so, then the 

 hundreds of other queens that I have clipped 

 must also have acquired a different scent, 

 yet they were not attacked. 



So far as the queen is concerned, it is im- 

 portant that she be brought before the bees 

 in a natural manner, in such a place and in 

 such a way as they would expect to meet 

 her. When clipping queens I have replaced 

 them by dropping them upon the top bars, 

 or at the entrance of the hive, when the bees 

 would immediately pounce upon them as in- 

 truders. A puff of smoke would cause the 

 bees to "let up," when the queen would 

 walk majestically down upon the combs, or 

 into the hive, as the case might be, and here 

 she would not be molested, because the bees 

 here found her where they exjMcted to find 

 their queen. When I wish to introduce a 

 queen by allowing her to run in at the en- 

 trance, I first shake off the bees, from two 

 combs, in front of the hive ; as they are run- 

 ning into the hive, I allow the queen to run 

 in with them. At such times as this there 

 are no guards at the entrance, the bees that 



are crawling in will not attack the queen, and 

 by the time that the colony has recovered its 

 tranquility, the queen is quietly parading 

 the combs. 



When a colony has been queenless long 

 enough to build a batch of queen cells, I 

 usually introduce a queen by simply taking 

 a comb, with the adhering bees and queen, 

 from a nucleus and hanging it in the queen- 

 less colony. By means of smoke, or a 

 feather, I drive all the bees from the inside 

 wall of one side of the hive, and against 

 this side of the hive I turn the side of the 

 comb upon which is the queen. Thus she 

 is not immediately brought in contact with 

 the excited, strange bees ; but the bees in- 

 termingle, and, almost unconsciously, the 

 whole colony has accepted the queen. If 

 any of the queenless bees stray near the 

 queen, they find her surrounded by a cortege 

 of her own bees. She is also attending to 

 her duties, and is almost cjrtain not to be 

 molested. 



When queens come from a distance they 

 are more diiiicult to introduce. They have 

 not layed any esgs in several days, and are 

 in a jaded condition. It is for this reason 

 that it has always seemed to me that the Peet 

 cage ought to be an unusually good cage 

 with which to introduce queens. This cage 

 can be attached to the surface of the comb, 

 when the withdrawal of a tin slide allows 

 the queen access to the surface of the comb 

 that is covered by the cage. Care should be 

 taken to select a spot where the young bees 

 are just gnawing out. If a few cells of un- 

 sealed honey can be included, so much the 

 better. The queen can then walk about upon 

 comb, and with the Scotchman she can sing : 



" My foot is on my native heath." 

 She can drink nectar from the unsealed 

 cells. She will soon have a retinue from the 

 newly hatched bees that are ready to accept 

 her, as they have never known any other 

 queen. She will begin laying in the few 

 cells at her command, and when she is re- 

 leased, will be in a nearly normal condition, 

 and surrounded by a few followers. Usually 

 the bees release the queen by eating under 

 the cage. If they do not, she can be re- 

 leased by thrusting the blade of a pocket 

 knife through the comb from the side op- 

 posite to the cage, and giving the knife a 

 twist or two. The bees will clean out and 

 enlarge the opening, thus letting out the 

 queen. One objection to the Peet cage is 

 that the bees may release the queen sooner 



