FUNDAMENTALS OF SUCCESSFUL INTRODUCTION 1 19 



hive when the queen is introduced and the emerging hrood will 

 make no trouble. 



Fundamentals of Successful Introduction. — The following 

 extracts from an editorial by the late W. Z. Hutchinson in the 

 Bee-Keeper's Review in 1891 cover the ground very fully: 



To introduce a queen to a colony of bees, two things must be well con- 

 sidered — the condition of the bees and the condition of the queen. The con- 

 dition and behavior of the queen is very important. If the queen will only 

 walk about upon the combs in a quiet and queenly manner, and go on with 

 her egg laying, she is almost certain to be accepted if the other conditions 

 are favorible. Let her run and "squeal" (utter that sharp " zeep, zeep, 

 zeep") and the bees immediately start in pursuit. Soon the queen is a 

 mass of tightly clinging bees and the only course is to smoke the bees 

 severely until they release the queen from their embrace, when she must be 

 re-caged for another trial. 



So far as the queen is concerned, it is important that she be brought 

 before the bees in a natural manner, in such a way and in such a place as 

 they would expect to meet her. When clipping queens I have replaced them 

 by dropping them upon the top bars, or at the entrance of the hive, when 

 the bees would immediately pounce upon them as intruders. A puff of 

 smoke would cause the bees to " let up " when the queen would walk ma- 

 jestically down upon the combs or into the hive, as the case might be, and 

 here she would not be molested, because the bees here found her where they 

 expected to find their queen. 



No definite length of time can be given as to how long a queen should 

 be caged before she is released. The behavior of the bees is the best guide. 

 If they are " balling " the cage, clinging to it in masses, like so many 

 burdocks, their behavior indicates what the queen would have to endure 

 were she within their reach. The operator must wait until the bees are in a 

 different mood; until they are walking quietly about the cage, as uncon- 

 cernedly as upon the combs of honey — perhaps the bees may be offering food 

 to the queen and caressing her with their antennae. Tliis sliows that the 

 bees are favorably inclined toward the queen and that it is safe to release 

 her. 



To be successful in introducing queens that have come from a distance, 

 the condition of the colony must be well looked after. It is better that they 

 should be hopelessly queenless. Let it build a batch of queen cells, and re- 

 move them after the larvte are too old to be developed into queens; then the 

 bees are almost certain to accept a queen if given to them in proper manner. 

 I had sooner release a queen after the bees had discovered the loss of their 

 old queen, and before they had begun the construction of queen cells, than 

 to release her after the cells were under way, unless I waited until the cells 

 were sealed over and had been removed. 



Bees are in a much more amiable mood when honey is coming in 

 freely. Don't attempt to introduce queens when no honey is being gathered, 

 without feeding the bees two or three days before the queen is released. 



So much has been written about the introduction of queens 

 and so many plans are in use that it is difficult to give a com- 



