314 



THE BEE-KEEPERS" REVIEW 



bees of the co'iony into the introducing'- 

 box. Close it and take all their combs 

 from the colony. These can be placed on 

 top of almost any hive until next day. 

 The hiv'e now m.ade broodless. fill about 

 half full of combs containing some honey 

 but no brood. Leave the colony alone un- 

 til about sundown, after which it will 

 show distress over the loss of its queen 

 and brood. Now take the box of bees to 

 the honey-house, and at the same time 

 the queens but don't set them near each 

 other. The bees in the little box will soon 

 miss their quean and have lots of trouble. 



After they have been confined about 

 five hours prepare some warm thin honey, 

 placing- it in a dish so that, by laying the 

 box on one side, the bees can easily reach 

 ihr honey through the wire cloth, but can 

 not daub themselves v/ith it. Leave them 

 thi- ',\ay tmti! you are sure that every 

 bee :n the box is as full of honey as it can 

 he, then g^ive them a little shake and re- 

 move the cover from the hole in the end 

 of the box (remember it is about five 

 hours since they were confined in the 

 box), and let run in any number of queens 

 you wish, including their own mother. 

 Now return them to their dish of honey so 

 they can help themselves to all they can 

 cat until about sundown; then take this 

 introducing-box with its bees and queens 

 to the hive from which you took the bees 

 and their queen in the morning; set them 

 to on? side and feed the colony all you 

 can induce it to eat. Remove some of its 

 combs -nd pour in some of the honey you 

 have b3en fesding to the bass in the box. 

 Shake somie of tnis honey out of its combs 

 on these bees, so every one will soon be 

 full Now remove the cover of the intro- 

 ducing-box and set the box in the hive 

 alongside the combs. Close up the top of 

 tha h've, and in the morn'ng all the bees 

 and quee.is will be clustered on the combs, 

 and some of the queens will have com- 

 menced to lay. You can now give them 

 the brood you took away from them the 

 day before, or let them fill their combs 

 with eggs, which five queens will do in 

 three or four day^. That is all there is 

 to it. 



You now have the colony all together 

 with their brood and tneir rnother-qaeen. 

 And as many other queens as you care to 

 have in one colony. There has not been 

 a queen balled or injured in any vv^a). 



We all know that many things along the 

 line of introducing queen? can be dcris 

 with weak colonies during a good flow of 

 nectar that can not be done with a strong 

 colony in a honey-dearth: and for that 

 reason we tried nearly all our experiments 

 on the strongest colonies we had during a 



scant flow of nectar, and usually with 

 colonies that had stung several queens 

 during our experiments. There seems to 

 have been almost no end to the number of 

 queens we sacrificed in perfecting- this un- 

 dertaking — more so because we picked 

 out. the Grossest and v/orst-dispositioned 

 bees we had, to experiment on. But as 

 these queens died to save the rest, their 

 lives were not lost in vain. 



Now v/hy is this method a success ? 

 First, because the bees have been a few 

 hours without their queen and brood; 

 next, a small part of their colony was 

 confined in a box and filled with honey 

 for several hours before the strange 

 queens were given them; then those bees 

 and these queens were shut up long 

 enough together to become all of the same 

 odor before they were given to the colony. 



There are some things in this method 

 that must not be overlooked. You first 

 ■-onfine enough bees in the introducing- 

 box to give to the queens you introduce 

 the same scent as the colony is, to which 

 you intend to put them; then the whole 

 colony has been queenless and broodless 

 for a few hours, and you have fed them 

 in the box all they could hold before giv- 

 ing them these queens, and you have also 

 fed the colony all they could eat before 

 they received the queens and their bees. 

 I find bees, like men, are better natured 

 when their stomachs are full. 



If these instructions are carried out 

 carefully you will never lose a queen in 

 introducing, and the colony will be queen- 

 less less than twelve hours. Certainly 

 this is a quicker and safer way than the 

 candy method, which takes three or four 

 days, and is often followed with a loss of 

 ten per cent or more. 



When we take queens from our nuclei 

 or full colonies to introduce in this way 

 we put several into a large cage, and 

 have never had one stung- by another. We 

 are careful not to put any worker bees in 

 with them. You may think that, to re- 

 ■move the plug from the hole in the box 

 and let the bees leave it during the night 

 would be better than to remove the top of 

 the box; but don't do it. Some of the be^s 

 and queens will stay in the box until the 

 next day; then when they come out and 

 join the colony the bees are all empty of 

 the honey you fed them, and they have 

 some queens that joined them at first, 

 and these additional queens might make 

 trouble. 



Be careful in following these insl ructions, 

 and you will not lose one queen in a hun- 

 dred; but it will not do to omit any part. 



Now as to the advantages derived from 

 this plurality of queens in a hive. First, 



