94 PRACTICAL QUEEN REAiaXG 



herself in a strange hive, will not be apparent to the bees, since 

 they are also in a state of confusion. By the time the excite- 

 ment subsides, the foreign odor of the new queen will no longer 

 be apparent, and she will settle down to the business of egg lay- 

 ing as though she had always been present in the hive. By this 

 method it is the usual way to remove the old queen either 

 shortly before or just at the time the new queen is introduced. 



Details of Cage Methods. 



All the -s-ariations of the cage method are comparatively 



simple. The old queen is first rcmo\'ed from the hive and the 



new one is introduced 



in a cage, Figure 37. 



W^^^^^S^^^ Probably the safest 



■ ■^^saMsudiaJI^ method of all is the 



Fig. 37. The Miller introducing cage. u ^i 



^ s s one ^^•here the queen is 



placed alone in a cage that covers a small patch of emerging 



brood. The emerging bees are, of course, friendly enough, 



and within two or three days she will be laying in her small 



enclosure and surrounded by a small group of attendants 



who found her present when they emerged. The cage is then 



carefully removed, and the comb replaced in the hive with as 



little disturbance as possible. Such a cage is made with a 



piece of ordinary wirecloth about four inches square, sometimes 



smaller. Each of the four corners is cut away for about three 



quarters of an inch. The four sides are then bent down, 



forming a wire box open at the bottom. The queen is placed 



under this and the wire pressed into the comb. It is well to 



have a few cells of sealed honey inside the cage, although the 



bees are likely to feed the queen through the meshes of the cage. 



When this plan is used in a hive where no brood is present, 



some newly emerged workers should be placed in the cage with 



the queen. The attitude of the bees toward the queen will 



determine when it is safe to release her. If on opening the hive, 



the cage is found to be covered with a tight cluster of bees, she 



would be balled immediately if released. When the bees are 



