§ viir.] IXTRODUCnXG NEW QUEJ:NS. 249 



same end if the ball be not dispersed. There are cases, 

 on the contrary, in which friendly bees surround a queen 

 to protect her from others, and sometimes the knot is 

 made up of members of both parties, perhaps without 

 enclosing the queen at all. The hissing note will at 

 once distinguish a hostile onset from a protecting rally. 



With the Renfrewshire cage (page 199 as above) all the 

 variation needed is to place the cage between instead of 

 within the combs, so as to permit of the queen's release 

 at the bottom. The inventor considers that this gives 

 an advantage in introducing her majesty in the first 

 place to those bees that have been engaged in feeding 

 her ; but, as already noticed, it is not the feeding, but the 

 familiarising with her presence, which is the great point, 

 and that is surely quite as well accomplished with the 

 other cage as this. There is also here no opportunity, 

 as in the other case, of being certain whether she is well 

 received or not, so that we always put a good-sized 

 board under the entrance, and examine the next day 

 whether she has been thrown out dead or not. 



In effecting the exchange with cottage hives, the bees 

 must first be driven out into another hive (as described 

 at page 226), and after the old queen is removed they 

 must be sprinkled with a little water flavoured with a drop 

 of extract of peppermint (to be obtained of any chemist), 

 which overcomes the particular hive-scent, and makes 

 all smell alike ; then throw the new queen in among 

 them and place the mass of them back in the hive. If 



