THE ITALIAN OE LIGUEIAN BEE. 331 



traction of her rivals. Drive out the beos again, find 

 and kill the queen, and again return them. There is no 

 possibility of their rearing another queen, and the Italian 

 may be introduced iu three days without much risk, if 

 the usual precautions are taken. 



Should the first queen that matures in such case, lead 

 out a swarm instead of destroying her royal sisters, 

 (which she would be likely to do, at any time near the 

 swarming season,) it will be some days later before they 

 are killed, and unless the colony is very strong, it would 

 be best to return the swarm. Hive it, and set it near the 

 parent stock till the next morning, then set the bees to 

 running into -the old hive, and secure the queen. When 

 the piping entirely ceases, it may be taken as evidence 

 that but one queen remains, and that it is time to operate. 



If it is desired to introduce a queen into a stock that 

 has swarmed it can be done on the same principle. The 

 only important point is to secure the queen remaining 

 after the destruction of the others, before she has begun 

 to lay. Any hive that loses its queen by her coming out 

 to meet the drone, may be supplied by simply taking the 

 trouble to introduce one. 



A neighbor has successfully introduced them to the 

 box hive, at the beginning of the swarming season. As 

 soon as a stock can spare a swarm, and before any queen- 

 cells are finished preparatory to swarming, he drives out 

 in the middle of the day a small swarm, and removes the 

 old hive a few feet and places the new one on its stand. 

 The old bees, that are acquainted with the old place, re- 

 turn there and make it strong. Two days afterward the 

 young bees that are hatching readily accept of any queen 

 that is given them. Old bees would be likely to destroy 

 them when given under similar circumstances. 



Queens may be introduced into the box hive by another 

 process, in October or November, after the queen is done 



