THE LIG URIAN BEE. 207 



stocks. It requires a considerable amount of apiarian 

 skill to accomplish the union,* so that we find by expe- 

 rience it is best to send out complete Ligurian stocks. 

 This is particularly desirable now that the packing of 

 whole hives is so easily accomplished by us with the aid 



* The plan of uniting an Italian queen to an English stock 

 is, first, to discover the queen by lifting out the frames, then take 

 her away. This, we find, is best done by putting a wine-glass 

 over her whilst on the comb, and, with a card a little larger than 

 the diameter of the glass, very carefully and gently passed under- 

 neath, so as not to injure her majesty, she is thus, with a few of 

 her subjects, made a prisoner, and easily removed. Be careful to 

 cut away with a penknife all queen-cells. Let the hive remain 

 queenless for twenty-four hours, and then place the Italian queen 

 in a small wire cage, the openings of whicli must be large 

 enough to enable her to receive the attentions of, and to commu- 

 nicate with, her new subjects, and, at the same time, to defend her 

 from the animosity with which bees regard a stranger-queen, that 

 has a scent different from that of her new flbme. Three or four 

 days' intercourse through the wire meshes generally has a recon- 

 ciling effect, and the Italian queen may be let go free to become 

 the monarch of the hive. Sometimes, even with all this precau- 

 tion, the foreigner is slain, so that it is well to preserve the black 

 queen alive (with a few of her own subjects), by feeding and 

 keeping her warm until the result is known. The wire cage 

 containing the new queen is made of a flat shape, so as to be 

 pressed down between the combs, against some honey-cells, in 

 order that, should the inhabitants of the hive be inattentive, her 

 majesty need not starve, but have food within reach. As it is 

 generally considered that the queen is fed by working bees, it is 

 always necessary to put about half a dozen of her onun subjects in 

 the cage with her, to pay her the requisite attention. 



