110 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 



in your hand and get that queen in your fingers, the chances 

 are that they will ball up again because that scent has been 

 changed. The bee's sense of smell is very acute. If the scent 

 is changed a little bit the conditions are different. They rec- 

 ognize her somewhat as a stranger. I have had queens balled 

 in our yard. By picking up the queen and showing her to 

 visitors and dropping her back, they will ball her. Sometimes 

 a disturbance in the hive will cause them to ball her. But 

 this question of scent plays a more important part in it than 

 we bee-keepers have been in the habit of thinking. If she 

 has the same scent as the rest of the bees she will be accepted. 

 A little while ago Mr. Stanley spoke about putting virgin 

 queens in a hive where there is a laying queen. If they have 

 the scent of the rest of the bees the bees won't tackle them, 

 but if the laying mother can get at those then there will be 

 war. 



Mr. Smith — Why do bees ball their queens? In my ex- 

 perience I find that there are two motives, one is to protect 

 them and another is to kill them. I will illustrate : I had 

 an Italian second swarm and a black swarm go together, and 

 both queens were balled. The yellow queen was balled with 

 her own bees ; the blacks also balled their own queen. I 

 liberated them and neither one was hurt. I introduced the 

 black queen and she flew away. I introduced the yellow 

 queen and shook the bees all out on the ground, and dropped 

 her in among the bees as they went to the hive. She was 

 introduced that way perfectly safe. The black queen came 

 back and lit on the outside, and the yellow bees killed her. 

 In the first place they had balled their own queen, which I 

 think was for protection. 



Mr. Abbott — I want to say I didn't mean my remarks 

 to apply to these abnormal conditions of two swarms going 

 together or anything of that kind. I want to be rightly 

 understood. I just let them go together and let them fight 

 it out. I don't fool with them. 



Mr. Smith — If you alarm a colony they will sometimes 

 ball their queen. That is to protect the queen. 



Mr. Root — Shut the hive up and they will be all right. 



DISPENSING WITH THE BEE-VEIL. 



"Generally speaking, can the bee-veil be dispensed with? 

 How many think it can?" 



Mr. Smith I would like -to see a man go through 40 

 or 50 colonies in the honey season without a bee-veil. 



Mr. Dadant — There are a few gentlemen here that get 

 along without bee-veils but if they wanted to follow some of 

 us all day among the bees and not flinch, stay right with it, 

 they will wish they had a bee-veil, unless they are absolutely 

 proof against the sting, and there are very few that are. 

 When you have a bee-veil you don't have to wear it all the 

 time, but you have it at hand so that you can wear it if you 

 have to. 



Mr. Miller — I may say in regard to that, that there are 



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