180 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' BEVIEW, 



supers in working for extracted honey, es- 

 pecially when one is not obliged to extract 

 from morning until night. On the full 

 depth, ten fi-ame, Langstroth supers, they 

 were not so successful; when the supers were 

 full of bees it took about twenty-four hours 

 for all the bees to liud their way out. The 

 honey gets cold during the night here and 

 does not extract well the next day; besides 

 those large supers are not easy to handle. , I 

 did not try smoking nearly all the bees out 

 of the super Ijefore putting the escape on; I 

 think that would be more work than brush- 

 ing the bees off in the old way. 



FiLLMOKE, Cal., July 8, 1891. 



Praise for the New Book. — The Value of 

 Swarm Catchers. 



B. TAYLOK. 



^ANY thanks for the new book. Af- 

 ter a short examination, I said to a 

 boy who is learning the trade, " You 

 just learn to practice what this little book 

 teaches, and you will be master of practical 

 honey producing, so far as present knowl- 

 edge goes." I regard it as the best instruc- 

 tion book yet published for the real honey 

 producer. 



Terrors of swarming time are changed to 

 a pleasant pastime. Yesterday I left the 

 yard for a day's rest, and on returning 

 found the two boys left in charge had cap- 

 tured and ni .ely hived seven swarms. To- 

 day, so far, we have taken four, and I am 

 now able to declare that all I said about it 

 being perfect is fully demonstrated by prac- 

 tice. I have made some very small changes 

 from the one I sent you as I informed you 

 by letter. 



The three last days of June were so cold 

 here that bees scarcely Hew at all. July 1st, 

 at ten o'clock, the sun showed his face, and 

 the swarms rushed out like a Johnstown 

 flood. Swarm catcher.s in hand we moved 

 "immediately upon their works;" and after 

 a very pleasant and exciting contest we se- 

 cured an "unconditional surrender." We 

 secured and hived without loss, or a single 

 mix, every swarm; and during the four first 

 days of this month we have caught and hived 

 forty-live swarms without a single failure. 

 During the season we caught and hived 

 about ninety-five swarms, with an case for 

 muscles and nerves hitherto unknown. A 

 bright boy or girl of ten years can use the 

 catchers as easily as the strongest man, and 



I assert that they are a complete cure for 

 the hardest place in managing a large apiary. 

 I believe I have saved from $10 to .$25 a day 

 for the last four days in direct loss, besides 

 the wear and tear on ourselves. I can handle 

 100 swarms easier with them than twenty- 

 five without. A word of prophesy and I am 

 done. Any kind of machine that catches 

 the queen and allows the bees to fly out, is 

 a fraud against bee keepers. 

 FoBESTViLLE, MiNN., July 4th, 1891. 



Introducing Virgin ftueens — Doubts About 



the Influence of Scent — Escort Bees 



Ought to be Left Out. 



EAMBLEK. 



^PON reading over your leader on the 

 Introduction of Queens, I noticed 

 one omission, the introduction of 

 virgin queens, and upon that point I shall 

 feel perfectly free to write. 



The virgin is the first one we have to deal 

 with in the rearing of queens, while many 

 breeders traffic to quite an extent in this 

 species of live stock. As to whether it is ad- 

 visable to put these queens upon the market 

 I shall not at present consider, except to say 

 that such queens, unless the purchaser is 

 quite sure of his drones, are quite sure to 

 raise an inferior straii of bees, in relation 

 to color if not in other respects. 



The introduction of a virgin queen to a 

 full colony is quite difficult. Although it 

 can be done it is preferable to introduce to 

 a nucleus. A method not sure every time is 

 to cage with a good supply of candy in the 

 entrance to the cage. The entrance ought 

 to be longer than usual, then by the time the 

 bees eat out the candy and reach the queen 

 she is treated with the resi^ect due to her 

 station. Another ^ure way to introduce to 

 a nucleus is with tobacco smoke. The bees 

 are stupefied and drop down upon the bot- 

 tom board, and the virgin is then dropped 

 in with them. When couciousness returns, 

 the queen is accepted without complaint. 

 This is the method that Mr. Alley employs 

 when introducing virgin queens. 



As an experiment I have successfully in- 

 troduced a virgin queen by removing the 

 occupant from an uuhatched queen cell, 

 tucking the virgin down into the cell and 

 plugging up the opening at the rear of the 

 cell where the (lueen was put in. As she has 

 gnawed out of one cell she is an expert, and 

 soon has another " borning " into the little 



