THOUSAND ANSWERS 181 



smoke— because such smoke is safe— is blown in and the entrance 

 closed. It should be explained that there is a seven-eighths- 

 inch space below the frames, so that the smoke blown in at the 

 entrance readily spreads and penetrates to all parts of the hive. 

 In from IS to 20 seconds that colony will be roaring. The small 

 space at the entrance is now opened; the queen is run in, followed 

 by a gentle puff of smoke, and the space again closed and left 

 closed for about ten minutes, when it is reopened and the bees 

 are allowed to ventilate and to quiet down. The full entrance is 

 not given for an hour or more or even until next day.'' 



Q. What is the Sibbald quick method of introducing queens? 



A. Hunt the queen out that is to be removed and put her in a 

 wire cage on top of the frames. Then the queen that is to be in- 

 troduced is laid on top of the same frames, too, and left till eve- 

 ning. Now remove the old queen and put the new queen in the 

 cage from which the old queen has just been taken, and over the 

 end of the opening fasten a piece of comb foundation. Place on 

 the frames again, after punching a few small holes with a pin 

 through the- foundation and let the bees release the queen. Some- 

 times Mr. Sibbald rubs the dead body of the old queen, that has 

 just been killed, over the outside of the cage she has just come 

 out of. 



Q. How soon after introducing a queen is it safe to open the 

 hive to see if she is all right? 



A, It is a little safer not to disturb the colony for three or 

 four days. 



Queens, Keeping. — Q. The bees will take care of their own 

 queen in a cage. But if she is caged and put in another colony 

 above the excluder, will those strange bees take care of her? 



A. Generally there will be some bees so good-natured as to 

 feed a strange queen; but it is safer to have the cage provisioned, 

 and then the queen can feed herself. 



Q.' I have always been puzzled how to keep a lot of queens 

 when not having immediate use for them. You stated once about 

 the maximum length of time one could keep queens in cages 

 without danger to their laying powers. I suppose while so caged 

 they do not lay any eggs. But even the interruption in laying 

 while queens are in the mails is said to be harmful. 



A. In the case you speak of, the queens were kept in small 

 cages in a small colony. This was in the spring when there was 

 no heavy laying yet, and I doubt if the queens were at all in- 

 jured by being kept from laying. My guess would be that a 

 queen, or a number of queens, might be thus kept safely for a 



