268 Introduction of Queens. 



that I heartily recommend it. The food 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 tliemselves 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 



