Introducing Queens. 197 



half inch on each side, and weave in the ends of the wires, 

 forming a tube the size of the finger. We now have only to 

 put the queen in the tube and pinch the ends together, and 

 the queen is caged. The cage containing the queen should be 



Fig. 84. 



Omen Cage. 



inserted between two adjacent combs containing honey, each 

 of which will touch it. The queen can thus sip honey as she 

 needs it. If we fear the queen may not be able to sip the 

 honey through the meshes of the wire, we may dip a piece of 

 clean sponge in honey and insert it in the upper end of the 

 cage before we compress this end. This will furnish the queen 

 with the needed food. In forty-eight hours we again open the 

 hive, after a thorough smoking, and also the cage, which is 

 easily done by pressing the upper end at right angles to the di- 

 rection of the pressure when we closed it. In doing this do 

 not remove the cage. Now keep watch, and if, as the bees en- 

 ter the cage or as the queen emerges, the bees attack her, secure 

 her immediately and re-cage her for another forty-eight hours. 

 I have introduced many queens in this manner, and have very 

 rarely been unsuccessful. At such times if the queen is not 

 well received by the bees, then she is "balled," as it is termed. 

 By the expression "balling the queen,'' we mean that the work- 

 er -bees press about her in a compact cluster, so as to form a 

 real live ball as large as a good sized peach. Here the queen 

 is held till she dies. By smoking the ball or throwing it into 

 water the queen may be speedily liberated. Mr. Dadant stops 

 the cage with a plug of wood (Fig. 84), and when he goes to 

 liberate the queen replaces the wooden stopple with one of 

 comb, and leaves the bees to liberate the queen by eating 

 out the comb. Mr. Betsinger uses a larger cage, open at one 

 end, which is pressed against the comb till the mouth of the 

 cage reaches the middle of it. If I understand him, the 

 queen is thus held by cage and comb till the bees liberate her. 



