Introducing Queene. 199 



just as satisfactory to the worker bees as though " to the man- 

 or horn, " 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 fertilized 

 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." - — 



When bees are not storing, especially if robbers are abund- 

 ant, it is more difficult to succeed, and at such times the ut- 

 most 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, letting the queen run in 

 with them. If the queen to be introduced is in a nucleus, we 

 can almost always introduce her safely by taking the frame 

 containing the queen, bees and all, and setting it in the middle 

 of the hive containing the queenless colony. 



A young queen, just emerging from a cell, can almost al- 

 ways be safely given at once to the colony, after destroying 

 the old queen. 



A queen cell is usually received with favor. If we use a 

 cell we must be careful to destroy all other queen-cells that 

 may be formed ; and if the one we supply is destroyed, wait 

 twenty-four hours and introduce another. If we wait seven 

 or eight days, and then destroy aU their queen-cells, the bees 

 are sure to accept a cell. But to save time I should always 

 introduce a queen. 



If we are to introduce an imported queen, or one of very 

 great value, we might make a new colony, aU of young bees. 

 We simply place two or three combs of rapidly hatching 

 brood in a hive, and the queen on them. By night-fall there 

 will be a goodly cluster of young bees. Unless the day and 

 night are warm the hive must be set in a warm room. The 

 entrance should be closed in any case. This keeps the queen 

 from leaving and robber bees from doing harm. As the num- 

 ber of bees warrant it, more brood may be added, and by adding 

 capped brood alone we may very soon have a full sized colony. 



