ESTABLISHING AN APIARY, AND LIGUEIANIZI>fG. 85 



those bees tiat had before been paying court to her through the prison 

 bars. Many prominent apiculturists are fnlly of opinion that the intense 

 animosity often shown by bees to a stranger queen will not in any case 

 prevent them feeding her if she be caged amongst them. If this opinion 

 be correct, the access to the food which the cages previously mentioned 

 give, is unnecessary. The talented " Eenfrewshire Beekeeper ' ' has accord- 

 ingly introduced an admirable little cage, which, as somewhat modified 

 by the Eev. G. Eaynor, appears in our illustration (Fig. 57). Its body 

 fits the unvarying width between the combs, 

 while the plate above, dropping on to the 

 frames or feed hole, prevents it from slipping 

 into the hive, the wire connected with the 

 lower door giving liberty to the prisoner when 

 it is depressed. The Eev. G. Eaynor thus 

 describes his use of this cage in the British 

 Bee Journal : " My hybrid stocks being in 

 bar frame hives, the queen was taken from 

 each stock, the hive closed, the cage inserted 

 through the centre hole, and the old queen B.i.rsolQijSs Cage. 

 placed in the cage through the upper door, 



where she remained about six hours. She was then liberated, and the 

 Ligurian queen, by means of the upper door, without any disturbance 

 of beps or cage, took her place. After an imprisonment of twenty- 

 four hours, the new queen was introduced to her new subjects by 

 means of the lower door, again without the least disturbance — in most 

 cases after dwrk. On the following day each insertion was verified; 

 and the thrill of pleasure on beholding twelve new monarohs in 

 succession safely enthroned perambnlating'the brood combs of large and 

 populous bar frame hives, such monarohs, too, for size and colour ! will 

 be better realised by old beekeepers than described by me." These 

 honeyless cages have not always succeeded, however. The queen in 

 them, so far as appearances can be trusted, occasionally being allowed to 

 starve ; but the failures have mostly been noted as occurring where 

 breeding has been long suspended, and consequently where yowng lees, 

 whose natural duty is that of feeding, are not found. Although queens 

 can be most easily established at the heads of colonies where young 

 bees are abundant, the presence of eggs and freshly hatched grubs 

 from which princesses may be evolved, must always be regarded as an 

 impediment ; and if royal cells have been commenced before the queen, 

 for whom a throne is sought, is caged in the hive, they should be care- 

 fully destroyed. In the height of the honey season the older workers 

 are so busily occupied in filling the store combs, whilst the juveniles of 

 the brood nest are so unsuspectingly ready to act as "maids in waiting" 

 to any royal lady, that the rightful sovereign may be quickly picked up 



