THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



137 



The Ghantry Queen Gage for Use 

 in Out-Apairies. 



E. F. ATWATER. 



'I N spite of the many methods of intro- 

 -^ ducing- queens, the woods being- full of 

 "infallible methods" which are not in- 

 fallible, methods by which it is "impossi- 

 ble to lose a queen,"" yet losses occur, and, 

 to miminize losses by any given method, 

 too much time and attention is required 

 especially for out yards in an extensive 

 business. 



Even a longf-time expert. Mr. E. W. 

 Alexander, has told of the unreliability of 

 most of the methods known. "When I had 

 only a few bees, 1 was very successful 

 with Dr. Miller"s original cage, as I was 

 then able to give the bees more attention, 

 and to establish conditions favorable to 

 success. A few years later, I enjoyed a 

 visit from my friend and early instructor 

 in bee-keeping, Mr. Chantry, and at that 

 time 1 was given one of his improved 

 cages, with the best caging principle yet 

 known. 



1 made several dozen such cages and 

 used them with unusual success for two 

 seasons: but the past two seasons I had 

 no better success than with the Miller or 

 the Benton cage. Why ? One fault of 

 the Chantry cage is that occasionally a 

 queen is so "stupid"" that she cannot find 

 the way out of the cage when the candy 

 is gone, as the passage is not quite so 

 direct as in the Miller or the Benton 

 cages. 



During the past season 1 received a 

 good many queens by mail, and, owing to 

 the rush of work, many of them were in- 

 troduced in the mailing cages. You know 

 that the authorities say that only one 

 queen in fifty is usually lost, using the 

 mailing cage for introducing. Nearly all 

 the cages had a bit of cardboard over the 

 candy. 



YOUNG BEES MORE LIKELY TO ACCEPT A 

 QUEEN. 



To receive most of these queens, a few 

 frames of brood and bees were put in a 

 hive on a new stand, and the cage sus- 

 pended between the combs— the old bees 

 go back to the old stand, and the young 

 bees are more willing to accept a queen. 



With some, the bit of card-board was 

 torn off. giving the bees immediate access 

 to the candy. Within a week or ten days, 

 we examined the colonies or nuclei so 

 prepared. Some of the queens were out 

 and laying, some were out and gone, 

 others had not gnawed the card-board, 

 and a few had not yet eaten through the 

 candy. A few had eaten out the candy, 

 but the fg hole in the end of the cage was 

 not bored clean, so the queen had not 

 escaped. 



A POINT TO QUEEN CAGE MAKERS. 



Here is a point for some breeders to 

 mend- be sure that the Vi hole in the 

 end of the cage is bored clean and large 

 enough so that the queen can easily 

 pass out when the candy is eaten away. 



One choice tested queen was introduc- 

 ed by the usually safe though rather 

 cumbersome Massie "infallible"" method 

 of direct introduction, but in the latter 

 stages of the process she was killed. 

 Though as nearly safe as any method, 

 we don"t like to go to so much trouble to 

 introduce the average queen- its out of 

 the question in out yards. 



During the past season I do not re- 

 member that any queen introduced with 

 tobacco smoke, was killed. 



A select tested queen was caged in a 

 comb cage, with a tube outlet on the 

 Chantry principle. On returning a few 



