110 



Texas Department op Agriculture. 



queens are received from the queen rearers, have the candy passage 

 arranged iu such a way that the bees will liberate the queen in the 

 proper length of time. These are usually provided with a small 



piece of perforated card- 

 board over the candy hole 

 in one end of the cage, to ex- 

 tend long enough the time 

 required by the bees to clear 

 the passage-way. The queen 

 would be destroyed if she 

 were freed too soon. 



Valuable and high-priced 

 queens should be placed on a 

 comb with very young bees 

 and hatching brood inside of 

 a screen wire cage into 

 which the frame containing this comb fits and is fastened so no 

 bees can find access to it. This is then hung in the center of a 

 queenless colony after two combs have been removed' from the hive, 

 and left for a week or ten days, when the comb with the queen can 

 be removed from the screen wire cage and gently placed back in 

 the hive. 



Another way is to fold a piece of screen wire cloth into the shape 

 of a shallow box about three-fourths of an inch deep and three or 

 four inches square. The screen wire is cut about an inch larger 

 than the box is to be deep, then pieces are cut out of each corner 

 one and one-half inches square. Next the wire threads are removed 

 from the outside edge of all four sides half of their distance. Then 

 the sides are bent down square, forming the box with the ends of the 

 wires protruding so they may be stuck through the comb. The 

 queen is now placed upon the comb where young bees are hatching, 

 and the cage placed over her and pressed firmly into the comb. No 

 old bees can get to the queen, and the young hatching bees will care 

 for her properly until she is released in a week or so. 



Another way is to place a screen wire cloth over the top of a 

 colony of bees that has been made queenless, and set on top of this 

 another hive. In this is placed a comb containing many young and 

 hatching bees and some honey, or an extra comb of honey may be 

 placed by the side of it, which is preferable, and the queen is re- 

 leased upon the brood comb. Later she may be removed into the 

 lower chamber, or a colony may be formed in the top hive by putting 

 combs of brood into it from time to time and then removing the top 

 story all together. 



TEXAS DIVIDED APICULTURALLY. 



On account of the large area of Texas and the variations in soils, 

 altitudes and climatic conditions, and consequent differences in flora 

 met with over its surface, there are distinctive main sources for sur- 

 plus honey in different sections of the State. For convenience, Texas 

 may be divided into six different parts apiculturally, viz: North, 

 central, east, south, west, and southwest Texas. Each of these regions 



