24 



ADVANCED BEE-CULtURE. 



combs of just hatching bees. Go over 

 several hives, and select enough combs, 

 from which the bees are just emerging, 

 to fill a hive. Choose those combs hav- 

 ing the least unsealed brood, as the most 

 of this will perish. Shake off every bee 

 and hang the combs in a hive, closing it 

 up bee-tight. Allow the queen to run in 

 at a small opening, closing it behind her. 

 This work should be done in the fore 

 part of a warm day. In a few hours 

 enough bees will have been hatched to 

 make quite a little cluster, with which 

 the queen is absolutely safe. It might be 

 well to carry the hive into the house at 

 night, for two or three nights. In a week 

 the hive may be given a stand in the api- 

 ary, and the entrance opened enough to 

 allow the passage of a single bee. So 

 much trouble is not advisable unless it is 

 with a very valuable queen. 



If bees are shaken from their combs in- 

 to a box, and kept confined, without a 

 queen, several hours, Mr. Doolittle says 

 they will invariably accept a queen if giv- 

 en one in the box. In other words, they 

 are hopelessly queenless, and away from 

 their home, and will accept anything in 

 the shape of a queen. 



Mr. D. A. Jones is successful in intro- 

 ducing queens by using chloroform. Use 

 a small Bingham smoker. Put a dry 

 sponge at the bottom of the fire barrel. 

 Wet a sponge with chloroform and put 

 on top of the dry sponge. Over this put 

 another dry sponge. Put on the nozzle 

 and then drive the vapor into the mouth 

 of the hive, the same as smoke would be 

 driven, by working the bellows, when 

 the bees begin to drop down on the bottom 

 board, allow the queen to run in, and the 

 work is done. I have never tried either 

 the Doolittle or the chloroform method. 



In recapitulation I will say, if you wish 

 to be stire of success in introducing queens. 



received from a distance, observe the 

 following directions: If the bees are not 

 gathering honey, feed them. Have the 

 bees hopelessly queenless. Before releas- 

 ing the queen, see that the bees are favor- / 

 ably inclined towards her. Allow the bees 

 to release her by eating candy out of the 

 entrance of the cage. Don't disturb the 

 bees for several days after the queen is 

 released. I am aware that success is of- 

 ten achieved when some of the points are 

 neglected, but each has its weight. 



Since the foregoing was written I have, 

 for three years, been guaranteeing the 

 safe introduction of all queens that Isold. 

 Of several plans that I have given my cus- 

 tomer to follow, none has been more suc- 

 cessful than that of the use of tobacco 

 smoke. The instructions that I send to 

 my customers read as follows: — 



As soon as you receive this notice, re- 

 move the queen from the colony to which 

 vou expect to introduce the new queen. 

 When she arrives, put her away in a safe 

 place until after sundown, just at dusk, 

 then light your smoker, and when it is 

 well to going put in a pipeful of smoking 

 tobacco, put on the cover, puff until you 

 get an odor of tobacco, then puif two or 

 thiee 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 the bees down 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 put on the cover. Half an hour la- 

 ter, light up the smoker again, putting in 

 the tobacco as before, and blow two more 

 good puffs in at the entrance. If no hon- 

 ey 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. 



