158 



SIXTH AMNUAL REPORT OF THE 



said, you do not then stop the produc- 

 tion of bees in the hive. The old queen 

 goes on laying all the time up to the 

 very moment of her exclusion from the 

 hive, and the new queen takes her 

 place. I think it is the best method 

 I have ever known. 



Mr. Wilcox — If you could not place 

 her over the colony, would you place 

 her between the combs? 



Mr. Whitney — Yes, you might do 

 that; but I have placed the cage at the 

 entrance of the hive. My hive-en- 

 trances are wide, but just about high 

 enough. 



Dr. Miller — You could not do that 

 in cool weather. 



Mr. Whitney — Not very cool weather, 

 no. I would not do it in cool weather. 

 But I merely mention that I have done 

 it in warm weather, but with my kind 

 of hives there is scarcely any necessity 

 for it. 



Mr. Wheeler — What do you do with 

 the attendant bees — bees that are with 

 the queen? Do you kill them? 



Mr. Whitney — O, they take care of 

 themselves, or the other bees will take 

 care of them. I don't pay any attention 

 to them at all. 



Mr. Abbott — Let them alone. They 

 will do no harm. 



Mr. Kimmey — You say turn the queen 

 loose immediately; make the opening so 

 that she can walk right out? 



Mr. Whitney — Yes; run a pencil 

 through and puncture the queen-candy 

 and let the queen out. She will usually 

 remain in the cage for several hours, 

 and the bees will go in. They do not 

 often run out immediately, but I will 

 let them free and turn them right out. 

 Ordinarily they remain in the cage for 

 several minutes, or hours, possibly. 



Mr. Hutchinson — I think that the idea 

 of letting the queen free at once without 

 leaving the colony queenless until they 

 find out they are queenless is probably 

 all right. The only reason that I could 

 see in keeping a queen caged 2 days 

 or more before letting her out is that 

 sometimes it seems as though the mood 

 of bees changes. You will come to a 

 hive sometimes with a queen-cage in it, 

 and you will find bees sticking right 

 over the cage like so many burdocks, 

 and perhaps the next day they have 

 changed their mood and are walking 

 peacefully over the cage. If you re- 

 lease the queen when they are inclined 

 to bother her, they might kill her. I 



think it is much better never to let a 

 colony know they are queenless. Don't 

 leave them queenless long enough so 

 that they find it out. I introduced a 

 queen last fall after the hon-ey-flow had 

 ceased, when it is somewhat different. 

 I went over the hives and found the 

 queen. As soon as I would find the 

 queen I would kill her and open that 

 cage at one end and fill it perhaps an 

 inch or an inch and half with sugar 

 candy, and put it back in. I do not sup- 

 pose those bees knew they had a new 

 queen, and out of the 40 I lost 2 queens. 

 Those were strong hybrid colonies. 



Mr. Moore — Mr. Hutchinson, what 

 would you do now to save the queens 

 to those 2 strong hybrid colonies, in 

 addition to what you did before? 



Mr. Hutchinson — I don't know that 

 I could do anything. 



Mr. Whitney — I have introduced a 

 strange queen to a queenless colony and 

 she was accepted immediately. There 

 would be a buzz of bees all over the 

 frames and down through the yards the 

 moment she struck the top. An ex- 

 ception, of course; that would seem to 

 be a sort of freak of the bees. I don't 

 know why they accepted her so sud- 

 denly or willingly, but they did. 



Mr. Taylor — They will almost invaria- 

 bly do that in the spring. 



Mr. Abbott — Never turn a queen free 

 if you have one or more cages, if the 

 bees are not walking around naturally, 

 no difference whether they have been 

 on there i day or 3. Never turn a 

 queen free under those circumstances. 

 Simply close up the hive. You have 

 the old queen laying. That is the ad- 

 vantage of having a queen on top. To- 

 morrow, if all is quiet, and they are 

 walking around naturally, hunt out the 

 old queen. If they have had 48 hours 

 and have started queen-cells, then if 

 you can't put her in, it leaves another 

 day to work on the cells. 



Dr. Miller — I want to say just a word 

 on introducing as Mr. Abbott advises. 

 I think I objected at one meeting here 

 that there was some delay in doing that 

 way, but a good deal of experience since 

 has made me appreciate very much the 

 advantage of having a queen in the hive 

 some time — that is, the new queen in 

 the hive — some time before the old one 

 is removed. As probably all here know, 

 it is not an easy thing to introduce a 

 virgin queen, and since that time I have' 

 introduced a good many virgin queens, 



