3? QUEEN INTRODUCTION. 



have at least one purely-mated foreign queen in his apiary, 

 as the working qualities of all the bees in the neighbourhood 

 will be improved by the crossing which will result, even in 

 the first season. On the Continent there are many apiaries 

 exclusively devoted to the breeding of queens, and a large 

 trade is done in exporting them to England and the United 

 States of America. They are usually sent off in small boxes, 

 about six inches square, each box containing one, and some- 

 times two, small frames of comb, with the queen and a few 

 dozen bees as attendants. 



The first essential to the safe introduction of a queen is 

 the queenlessness of the stock to which she is to be intro- 

 duced. One way to ensure this is to remove the reigning 

 queen, and another is to take a swarm from the stock. If 

 the combs of a stock do not contain brood or eggs at any 

 time between March and September, it is almost certainly 

 queenless, and the question can be settled beyond doubt by 

 giving the suspected stock a comb containing eggs and 

 brood taken from another hive. If queenless, the bees will 

 set to work raising queen cells within twenty-four hours. 

 One of the safest methods of queen introduction is the fol- 

 lowing, the only appliance necessary being a pipe-cover 

 queen cage, which costs about fourpence, and a small piece 

 of card. The box containing the queen is brought to a 

 quiet corner of the garden, and the cover is prized off by 

 passing the blade of a knife under it. While the bees are 

 running and flying about, a sharp look-out must be kept for 

 the queen. If she is seen to fly, no apprehension need be 

 felt, as she will surely return to the box, when she must be 

 gently caught by the wings, and put under the cage, which 

 should be standing on the card. About a dozen of the 

 workers are put in with her, after which the queenless hive 

 is opened, a comb is lifted out, and the bees are shaken off. 

 The cage, with card under it, is now placed on the comb on 

 some unsealed honey, the card is slowly withdrawn, and the 

 cage is screwed round until it cuts its way into the middle 

 of the comb, which is then returned to the hive. Twenty- 

 four hours after, the comb should be lifted out, and the 

 behaviour of the bees round the cage noted. If they make 

 an angry, hissing noise, and bite at the imprisoned bees as 



