210 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



be able to raise the hive suflficiently off its 

 bottom to do away with the clusters of bees 

 that lie idle on the outside. We waut to 

 give them enough air to enable them to 

 make the whole hive comfortable in any 

 part of it. The less drone traps, queen ex- 

 cluders, partitions, separators etc. you have 

 in your hives, the better the bees will feel 

 and the less swarms you will have. 



Hamilton, 111., July 23, 1891. 



[Upon inquiry in regard to the treatment 

 of the swarm until is returned I learn that it 

 is hived upon the old stand and the parent 

 colony set to one side for the time being.-ED. j 



The Three Leading Methods of Introducing 

 Queens. 



W. J. ELLISON. 



C^^ S THE introduction of queens by any 

 mode will not be for the instruction 

 of the "vets," I think we should 

 make the best way we know of as plain and 

 simple as possible, that the most unskilled 

 and nervous juvenile in the art could not 

 make a failure. 



We have three old, standard methods, all 

 tending to or involving the same principle, 

 that of causing the queen to act as careless 

 of the presence of any strangers as if she 

 were in the home from which she had just 

 been transposed. I have always held that, 

 in successful introduction, every thing de- 

 pends upon the action of the (piem. If we 

 could persuade a virgin of four or live days 

 to act as much like a laying queen as does 

 one of a few hours, we would have as little 

 trouble getting the bees to accept her as we 

 do the laying queen. But we can't. Al- 

 most the first antennae that touches one 

 of that age she starts, throws up her wings 

 in a " touch me not" manner, and is next 

 seen racing over the combs with a few old 

 veterans of the field in her wake. Finally 

 she is captured and held tight by each hind 

 leg. This is the beginning of the end. The 

 result is she is balled and if not aided is 

 killed. I think it pays a queen breeder bet- 

 ter not to fuss with virgin queens more than 

 twenty-four hours old. 



The first, and I think the best, of all plans 

 is that of caging the queen on one of the 

 combs, allowing the bees to liberate her by 

 cutting away the comb, and it matters little 

 where she is placed, whether over hatching 

 bees or not, only that she is put where she 

 can get honey from the cells, if she is not 

 provided with food in the cage. After she 



is so placed do not disturb the bees for at 

 least 48 hours. It is well to ob erve this in 

 any way we give a new queen to a colony, 

 unless they have been queenless at least 

 seven days or until they have had time to 

 build and seal a batch of cells. Then they 

 will accept almost any well behaved queen. 



The next best way is in having a cage with 

 a place of exit filled with "Good candy," the 

 • bees will eat it away making a clear passage 

 for " Her Royal Highness" to stroll out at 

 her leisure. Some one has said by the time 

 the bees have eaten away the food they will 

 be in a good humor and will accept the 

 queen, but I believe the bees are always in a 

 good humor when in the presence of a queen 

 that knows how to behave herself. 



The third way is that of having the queen 

 altogether confined in any kind of a cage and 

 placed in a queenless colony for forty-eight 

 hours, then liberate her. She is by this 

 time very apt to be accepted; if not well re- 

 ceived then recage her for another term of 

 imprisonment. 



With any plan we must first be sure the 

 colony is queenless before attempting to 

 give them a new queen. There may be 

 many other ways, according to books, to in- 

 troduce (lueens but the forgoing are the chie"f 

 and only safe ways. 



In my own apiary I adopt myself to cir- 

 cumstances more than to any particular 

 mode of introduction. I introduced a se- 

 lect tested queen to-day. Suppose I tell you 

 how I did it. It took ten minutes. The col- 

 ony was one that had raised a batch of cells. 

 In taking them away the robl)ers became 

 very troublesome; I feared to open the hive, 

 after closing it in their presence, so I 

 placed the queen, (she being in an empty 

 cage without food) directly at the entrance. 

 In about a minute the cage was covered 

 with bees, some feeding her througli the 

 wire cloth. I quickly removed the cage 

 about G or 8 inches away and opened it, when 

 the same bees that adhered to it acted as an 

 escort to lead her to the entrance, where she 

 walked boldly in followed by a lot of merry 

 bees all buzzing a real hearty note of wel- 

 come from each of their little wings. All 

 this with dozens of robbers flying around. 

 I am not much of a believer in any particular 

 cage for introducing queens, as we have only 

 to allow the queen, if a laying one, to become 

 acquainted or used to the bees, and all trouble 

 is over. Sometimes it takes one hour and 

 sometimes forty-eight. 



Catchall, S. C, April 2nd, 1891. 



