ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 97 



If the bees are shakea from their combs into a ventilated box, 

 and kept confined, without a queen, several hours, Mr. Doolittle 

 says that they will invariably accept a queen if given one in the box. 

 In other words, they are hopelessly queenless, away from home, 

 confined, and are ready to accept anything in the shape of a queen. 



If the bees can, in some way, be placed in such a condition of 

 mind (or body) as to let the queen alone until she has gathered the 

 reins into her hands, so to speak, there is seldom any more trouble 

 about her being accepted as their sovereign; and one excellent method 

 of placing them in that condition is bj^ the use of tobacco smoke. 

 For several years I guaranteed the safe introduction of queens that 

 I sent out, and the tobacco smoke method was the most successful 

 of any that I ever asked my customers to try. The day before ship- 

 ping the queen, I sent the following notice: 



As soon as you receive this notice, remove the queen from the 

 colony to which you expect to introduce the new queen. When she 

 arrives, put her away in a safe place until after sundown. Just at 

 dusk, light your smoker. When it is well to going, but in a pipeful 

 of smoking tobacco, put on the cover, puff until you get an odor of 

 tobacco, then puff two or three good puffs into the entrance of the 

 hive. Wait two or three minutes, then send in another good puff or 

 two, remove the cover, drive down the bees with a puff of smoke, 

 open the cage and allow the queen to run down between the combs, 

 following her with a puff or two of smoke, and then put on the cover. 

 Half an hour later, light up the smoker again, putting in the tobacco 

 as before, and blow two more good puffs in at the entrance. If no 

 honey is coming in, feed the colony a pint of syrup each night from 

 the inside of the hive, but don't disturb the brood nest for four or 

 five days. 



The tobacco smoke partly stupefies the bees, and by the time 

 they have recovered, the queen is, in full possession. By doing the 

 work in the evening the bees are in condition to defend themselves 

 by morning, should it be necessary. 



There is, however, one method of introducing a queen that 

 never fails, it is that of confining the queen in a hive with several 

 combs of just hatching bees. Go over several hives, and find enough 

 combs, from which the bees are just emerging, to fill a hive. Choose 

 those combs having the least unsealed brood, as the most of this 

 will perish. Shake off every bee, hang the combs in the hive, and 

 close it up bee- tight. Allow the queen to run in at a small opening, 

 closing it after her.. This work should be done in the forepart of 

 a warm day. In a few hours enough bees will have hatched to form 

 quite a little cluster, with which the queen is absolutely safe. If the 

 nights are cool, it might be well to carry the hive into the house for 

 two or three nights. In five or six days the hive may be given a 



