THOUSAND ANSWERS 11 



Bees are no good without pasturage, and pasturage is no good 

 without bees. You can't very well get along without a hive. But 

 if you insist that I must pick out some one thing to which the 

 beekeeper must give the greatest attention, I think I would say 

 the queen. For whatever the queen is, that decides what the 

 bees are. By breeding for the best all the time, a man is more 

 likely to get ahead than by giving his attention to something else, 

 such as hives or pasturage. 



Bees, Cross. — Q. I have a colony of bees that is very cross, and 

 one that is very tame. How could I introduce a queen from the 

 tame colony to the cross one so as to make them all tame? And 

 at what time ought I do it? 



A. Rear a queen from the better stock, kill the objectionable 

 queen, and introduce the new queen in an introducing cage. Or 

 you may do the other way. Take two or three frames of brood 

 from the good colony, put them in an empty hive, fill out with 

 empty combs or frames filled with foundation, and set this on the 

 stand of the bad colony, moving the bad colony to a new place 

 close by. Now lift out two or three frames from the bad colony 

 (be sure you don't get the queen), and shake the bees from these 

 frames into your new hive, returning to the bad colony its two 

 frames of brood. In two or three weeks there ought to be 

 a queen laying in your new hive. You can strengthen it by ad- 

 ding brood and bees from the bad hive, or you can unite with it 

 all of the bees and brood, killing the bad queen two or three days 

 before uniting. Pehaps you would like to have two colonies in- 

 stead of one. In that case kill the bad queen a week after the 

 first move, and two or three days later exchange one of the two 

 frames in your new hive for one of the frames in the bad hive, 

 making sure there is a queen-cell on the frame, and also on the 

 frame you leave. 



Bee-Escapes. — Q. When you have on more than one super how 

 would you put a bee-escape under? Would you lift the supers 

 one at a time and put them on a bench, and then, after the escape 

 is on, put them back? 



A. If there are two or more supers on the hive you are not 

 likely to want to take all off at a time unless at the close of the 

 season. So lift off supers until all are off that are ready to take, 

 setting them on end on the ground, leaning against their hive, or 

 perhaps setting them on top of an adjoining hive. Then return 

 any that are not ready yet, put on the escape, and then the super 

 or supers that are ready to take. 



