and its Economic Management. i6i 



advisable to give her an escort of some half-dozen young 

 workers picked from the comb just after hatching, and taken 

 from the hive in which the queen is to be caged. By these 

 methods the most favourable time for inserting queens is 

 during the months when they are breeding and storing ; but in 

 autumn the bees are more inclined to resent intrusion, where 

 so much disturbance is necessary. 



DIRECT INTRODUCTION. 



A term first applied by myself in the year 1881, will be 

 found much more simple than the foregoing, in that it enables 

 the bee-keeper to insert a queen without loss of time and by 

 two of my own methods to any colony, at any time of the 

 year, whatever be the condition of the hive, whether it 

 contains queen cells up to the point of hatching, brood in 

 every stage of development, fertile workers, or no brood at all. 



Simmins' "Comb Method," 



first brought to public notice by my pamphlet in 1 881, consists 

 in taking a queen from a nucleus, or otherwise, upon the comb 

 she is parading among her own bees, and then inserting the 

 whole into the desired hive, using a little smoke as in ordinary 

 manipulation. Be careful to carry the comb in an uncovered 

 box from nucleus to full colony, and before inserting the same, 

 part the combs of the hive to give plenty of room and admit 

 light. (See also " Uniting.") 



Simmins' " Fasting Method," 



long since practised by myself and first mentioned in the 

 pamphlet upon Direct Introduction, I have since improyed by 

 inserting the queen at night. The three things of importance 

 to be observed are as follows: — (i) Keep the queen quite alone 

 for not less than thirty minutes ; (2) she is to be without food 

 meanwhile ; (3) and to be allowed to run down from the top of 



M 



