with one open side. Jt is made of a piece of wire mosquito bar 
or similar wire cloth about five inches square. From each corner 
is cut a piece half an inch square and the edges are given a right- 
angled fold resulting in the shallow cage. 
To introduce a queen by this method, a comb containing emerg- 
ing brood with cells of honey within two inches of it is taken indoors. 
Before a window the mailing cage is opened allowing the queen to 
crawl up on the window. She is then caught by the wings and 
placed on the comb and covered with the cage in such a manner that 
she will have access to empty cells and honey and emerging bees 
to keep her company. The cage is pressed into the comb firmly 
enough to prevent its falling off. 
Soon the queen will place eggs in the empty cells and the 
emerging bees will be friendly to her, both of which seem to be 
favorable for her reception by the colony. 
In about three days the cage may be removed by the beekeeper 
and the queen released if the bees have not burrowed under the 
edge and in that manner released her. Some beekeepers prefer 
to bore a hole through the comb into the cage from the opposite 
side, leaving the particles of comb in the hole for the bees to remove. 
This insures that the queen shall make her exit among the bees after 
the disturbance has subsided, and for that reason it is believed to 
be a good plan. 
Balling Queen 
Not always does a colony accept an introduced queen, but they 
may cluster about her in a tight mass making a cluster about 1 1/2 
inches or less in diameter. Whether they sting her, smother her 
or deprive her of food and thus cause her death is not proven, but 
the queen is often dead when the cluster breaks. 
Balling may occur when a colony is opened too soon after a 
queen has been introduced. This is likely to occur especially where 
there is no honey flow. 
The usual practice when a queen is found balled is to smoke 
the mass to cause the bees to disperse and again cage the queen, 
hoping that later the bees will accept the queen. When convenient 
the cluster may be dropped in water to cause the ball to break up. 
There is as yet no absolutely certain method of introducing 
a queen. A loss of ten'per cent is not considered unusual. 
DISEASES AND ENEMIES 
Brood Diseases 
There are three known diseases of the brood of bees, called 
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