ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 93 



^ p^iO introduce a queen to a colony of bees, two things must be 

 well-considered — the condition of the bees and the condition 

 of the queen. The condition and behavior of the queen is 

 very important. If she will only walk about upon the 

 combs in a quiet and queenly manner, and go on with her egg laying, 

 she is almost certain to be accepted if other conditions are favorable. 

 Let her run and "squeal," utter that sharp "zeep, zeep, zeep," and 

 the bees immediately start in pursuit. Soon the queen is in the 

 center of a ball of tightly clinging bees, and the onlj^ course is to 

 smoke the bees severely until they release the queen from their 

 embrace, when she must be re-caged for another trial. Right here 

 a caution: Don't hold the smoker too near the ball of bees, as hoi 

 smoke seems to infuriate the bees into stinging the queen. Hold 

 the smoker far enough away so that the smoke will become cooled 

 before reaching the bees. Dropping the ball into a cup of water has 

 been recommended to induce the bees to release the queen; to the 

 inexperienced, this may be the better plan, as it often happens that 

 one of the bees will grasp the queen and endeavor to sting her, 

 smoke or no smoke, and, in the attempt to rescue the queen, a novice 

 is quite likely to injure her. 



The Simmins method of introducing queens is an illustration of 

 how great a part is played by the attitude of the queen towards the 

 workers. He removes the reigning queen a few hours previous to 

 liberating the new queen, and then, just at dusk, so late that the 

 bees are through flying, and too late for the queen to take wing, the 

 queen is released at the top of the hive and allowed to rundown 

 among the combs. And here comes in the important point: For 

 half an hour before the queen is released, she is kept away from the 



