6G Brf-l'i'eiHiiij III 1 ictonn. 



or two later she may be killed right away or balled and worried ta 

 death. 



Trouble is sometimes created by returning to the hives newly- 

 extraeted combs at a time when, unperceived bj^ the bee-keeper, the 

 honey flow has ceased, and a commotion is caused which is communi- 

 cated to all the colonies; bees may be seen at the joints between the 

 hive bodies or wherever the odour of honey escapes; when a hive is 

 opened they hover round or boldly dive in between the combs. Under 

 these conditions bees sometimes ball their own queens, and are very 

 unlikely to accept a strange queen when deprived of their own. 



The hunting up of queens should be done towards evening, when 

 bees have ceased to tiy; care should be also taken that no honey is 

 spilt from combs so as to attract robber bees or ants next day. Bees 

 will most readily accex)t a new queen after being Cjueenless for from 

 24 to 48 hours. If queenless longer, queen-cells will have been started 

 and the bees will be less friendly disposed towards a new (|ueen. 



In such a case it is better to wait a few more days, when all worker 

 brood will be capped, and, having no means of raising a queen of their 

 own, the bees will visually readily accept a new ciueen — provided all 

 queen cells are destroyed before she is introduced. With a populous 

 colony it is difficidt to find all the cells, some of which may be quite 

 small and on the face of the comb. To make sure that none are left 

 it is best to shake the bees off the brood combs, one at a time, and care- 

 fully examine the comb all over. 



If a queen is to be introduced to a colony, assumed to l)e queen- 

 less because no eggs are present in the combs, a test-comb containing 

 young larva^ from another colonj^ should first be given to see whether 

 the colony is really queenless, in which case queen-cells will be started 

 by the bees within 48 hours. The comb may then be removed and 

 returned to the hive it came from, and the queen introduced. If no 

 cells are started on the test-comb, then a virgin queen is present in 

 the hive and must be removed, as well as the test-comb, before the new 

 queen can be given with safety. 



When a queen is received by post, remove the cover of the cage 

 and note her condition. If satisfactory remove the cork or covering 

 slip from the end of the cage containing the candy and, if there is 

 a queenless colony ready for introducing, place the cage wire down- 

 wards on top of the broad-frames. The bees, by gnawing out the 

 candy, will release the queen in from two to five days. If, on 

 examining the cage on receipt from the Post Office, the ciueen is found 

 dead, notify the sender, and as proof return the cage with bees and 

 dead queen — you will then receive another queen — all reputable 

 queen-breeders guarantee safe arrival. 



By the method of introduction described above, the worker bees 

 which accompanied the queen are introduced along with her. If 

 the candy in the cage is eaten out quickly and the queen released very 

 soon, this escort of worker bees may cause trouble. Should the colony 

 be in a perturbed condition, they are by their odour recognised as 

 strangers, and the animosity aroused is often transferred to the queen, 

 while the latter, having some of her own bees round her, will be shy 

 of strangers and frightened when getting amongst them. In intro- 

 duction much depends upon the behaviour of the queen when first 



