268 Introduction of Queens. 
that I heartily recommend it. The fooc-in the cage will 
keep the queen, even though the bees do not feed her 
through the wire, and there is no honey in the comb. 
Judge Andrews, of Texas, states a valuable point in this 
connection, which, though I have not tried, I am glad to 
give. The reputation of Judge Andrews and the value 
of the suggestion alike warrant it. He says queens will 
be accepted just as quickly when caged in a hive with a 
colony of bees, even though the old queen is still at large 
in the hive. Such caged queens, says the Judge, after two 
or three days, are just as satisfactory to the worker bees 
as though “to the manor born,” and even more safe when 
liberated—of course the old queen is first removed—as the 
bees start no queen-cells, if the old queen has remained in 
the hive until this time, and the presence of queen-cells 
agitates the newly liberated queen, which is pretty sure to 
cause her destruction. Here then we may cage and keep 
our queens after they have been fecundated in the nuclei, 
and at any time can take one of these, or the old queen, at 
pleasure, to use elsewhere, though if the latter, we must 
liberate one of the caged queens, which, says the Judge, 
“will always be welcomed by the bees.” Mr. Doolittle, as 
already stated, causes the bees to fill themselves with honey, 
then shakes them into a box, which is set for a day in a 
cool, dark room, when the new queen can be given them 
at once, even though she be a virgin. It is also stated that 
if we remove a queen at noonday, and after dark smoke 
the colony, after keeping the queen fasting for half an 
hour, we may safely introduce her at once. I have tried 
neither of these methods. I think this is the method of 
Mr. Simmins, of England. 
When bees are not storing, especially if robbers are 
abundant, it is more difficult to succeed, and at such times 
the utmost caution will occasionally fail of success if the 
bees are not all young. Sometimes a queen may be safely 
introduced into a queenless colony by simply shaking the 
bees all down in front of the hive, and as they pass in, let- 
ting the queen run in with them. If the queen to be intro- 
duced is in a nucleus, we can almost always introduce her 
safely by taking the frame containing the queen, bees and 
