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AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



TO INTRODUCE A QUEEN. 



Dequeen and allow the colony to remain queenless for three or four 

 days. During these days search for virgin queens and destroy them. 

 Remove all queen-cells in course of construction and those completed 

 before introducing the new queen. In handling the. queen, do it carefully. 

 Pick her up by the wing or thorax. By no means touch her abdomen ; 

 you may thereby ruin her procreative powers. Place her in one of the 

 many introducing cages shown on these plates, with about a dozen of her 

 own progeny. If the pipe-cover cage be used, press it into the comb 

 where the honey-cells are capped over. With the other cages use bee- 

 candy in the places allotted for it. 



After the introduced queen has been within the dequeened hive for 

 about forty-eight hours, set her at liberty. If the bees take kindly to her 

 they will pay little or no attention to her beyond making an inspection 

 and offering her food. In about an hour after she has been set at liberty 

 have another look at her, and if the inmates appear in any way to molest 

 the queen, recage her, and go through the whole work again. There is 

 no doubt of an introduced queen being accepted during a good honey- 

 flow, and if there be plenty of maturing brood in the cells. 



Bee-candy is made by boiling sugar in a. little water till it becomes 

 of the consistency of candied honey — i.e., when the boiled sugar has cooled. 



