108 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 



carried it into a little building in my hands and then caged 

 it there. I had a caged queen and the colony without any 

 queen which I wanted to get that queen into. I didn't know 

 what to do. I went back and hunted up all the old bee- 

 papers I could find to get some information on the question. 

 I don't know just what paper it was in, but it said to smear 

 the bee with a honey and water mixture and throw it in the 

 hive and it would be all right. I thought, "Here is a des- 

 perate case and I don't know what to do." I tried it and it 

 succeeded, and that is all I know about it. I simply smeared 

 the queen with that mixture and poured a teacupful right 

 down between two frames and let the bees in, and it went on 

 and made a good colony. 



Dr. Miller — It may succeed next time, but maybe it 

 won't. 



Mr. Dadant — I think there is a great deal less danger 

 than some people would think of bees stinging when they have 

 balled a queen. I have never had patience to go after a pail 

 of water to throw the bees into. We have found the bees 

 ball and I was in too much of a hurry to release her to do 

 anything like that and I never got stung. They are rubbing 

 against one another and expect to be rubbed, and their stings 

 will not hurt one another ; they will hardly hurt your fingers. 

 Qur way to do it is to do it promptly. 



Mr. Abbott — I would like to ask these gentlemen what 

 they have queens balled for? I wouldn't think anything more 

 about putting a queen into a hive and not having her balled 

 than I would about picking a frame out. I think a bee- 

 keeper hasn't learned his business that has them balled. 



Mr. Whitney — If she were balled what would you do? 



Mr. Abbott — She won't be. You might just as well ask 

 me if my wife left me what would I do. She won't leave. 



Mr. Kimmey — I would like to know what I did wrong. 

 I simply put the cage in the hive and left it there, I believe, 

 about 42 hours and found her balled in the bottom of the 

 hive. 



Dr. Miller — May I be allowed to interrupt and cut this 

 matter short by asking that Mr. Abbott shall tell us what he 

 can do so that there are never any balled queens or queens 

 balled. 



Mr. Whitney — Perhaps I can answer the question for 

 Mr. Abbott. I don't believe he keeps any bees ! [Laughter.] 



Mr. Abbott — I used to have about 200 colonies when I 

 was handling queens, but the question with me was. How 

 your colony came to be queenless? 



Dr. Miller — That is not the question. The question is. 

 How does he do that he never has any queens balled? 



Mr. Abbott — In the first place I don't have queenless 

 colonies to begin with, when I want to introduce a aueen. 



Mr. Kannenberg — I had a colony of bees I wanted to 

 Italianize. I got the queen out about two days before, and 

 I left it queenless for two or three days. Then I looked to 

 see when I put the queen in if there was — 



Mr. Abbott — You followed the instructions of the bee- 



