HOW TO KEEP BEES. 23 



man can put in several queens and have each one laying for a time, 

 but sooner or later all but one disappear. 



IMPORTANCE OF GOOD QUEENS. 



The success of the colony depends upon the queen, so it behooves 

 the beekeeper to see that each colony has a young and vigorous one. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



Introducing a new queen is a matter of much anxiety to the be- 

 ginner. The first essential is to remove the old queen or if she is 

 missing to be sure that no capped cell or young queen is present. 

 Two methods of introduction are in common use, the " cage method " 

 and the "direct." By the first, the queen is confined in a small cage 

 usually with a few attendants, and the exit of the cage is plugged 

 with a sort of candy made of powdered sugar and honey kneaded 

 together. The cage is placed on top of the frames or between the 

 combs and allowed to remain until the cand}- has been eaten out 

 and the queen freed. 



The "direct method " consists of letting the queen run in free. It 

 is helpful to confine the queen alone and without food for 

 twenty to thirty minutes before running her in, in the meantime 

 keeping her warm. The key to success in this method really lies 

 in getting the bees of the colony to which the queen is to be 

 given into a condition of extreme distress or " fear." The experienced 

 operator does this readily with smoke, and his ear quickly tells the 

 "pitch" of the bees "roaring," which indicates the desired condition. 

 When this is reached the queen is run in either at the entrance or on 

 top of the frames, preferably at the latter place, and the hive quickly 

 closed. She is immediately one of the mass of distressed bees each 

 turning to the other for "help " and when the disturbance subsides 

 she is quite as much at home as they are. A colony infested with 

 laying workers will accept a queen run in in this way when they will 

 not in any other, but unless they have been given a frame of un- 



