46 QUEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND. 



honey, fastened in a little frame by means of waxed 

 string. 



Queen Candy. — This useful article is made by knead- 

 ing finely jxiwdereil white cane sugar with warm honey to 

 tlie consistency of putty. It takes the .sugar some days to 

 absorb the honey, .so a little fre.sh sugar should be kneaded 

 in on several successive days. The jieculiar property of 

 this candy is that it will retain its moisture for a long time, 

 and vet it is too 'firm to fall out of shape at ordinary 

 temperatures. 



Inttoducing: Fertile Queens. — A colony is in the 

 most favourable condition for accepting a strange fertile 

 queen when it has been deprived of its own queen from one 

 to three days previously. Although the queen will some- 

 times be accepted if she is simply dropped among the bees 

 it is always ad\'isable to employ some method of introducing 

 her that will reduce the risk. The method that is on the 

 «ln)le the most satisfactory and is most extensively em- 

 ployed is to keep the queen in a cage, in which the workers 

 cannot molest her, until she has acquired the scent of the 

 hi\e, and they ha\-e become accustomed to her. Food must, 

 of course, be provided for the queen in the cage. The new 

 queen ma^■ be caged in the hive at the same time that the 

 old one is taken out. 



Introducing Cage for Pressing into the Comb. — 

 This simple and efficient cage (Fig. 30) may be made from 

 a piece of stiff wire cloth (with about twehe wires to the 

 inch) ^lin. square, by cutting fin. squares out of each corner, 

 and by bending down the sides so formed. The queen is 

 placed in the cage by herself or with one or two freshly- 

 hatched workers, and the cage is pressed into one of the 

 middle combs so that one or two cells containing unsealed 

 honev are enclosed in the cage. The cage will sink better 



into the comb if two or three 

 strands of the wire are pulled off 

 the edges. In spring a caging of 

 24 to 36 hours is generally long 

 enough, but in the autumn double 

 that time is often necessary. If, 

 when the hive is opened to remove 

 Fig. 30. the cage, the bees are .seen to be 



Introducing-uiigie lor Pressing , , " , 



intS thi Comb. clustermg closely around the cage, 



