and its Economic Management. 135 



Mr. Cheshire places a flat cage on (not cut into) the capped 

 brood, where it is held by a spring passed over the top bar, when 

 in the course of a few hours the bees cut away under tlie edge of 

 the cage, and thus liberate the queen widiout further disturbance. 

 For greater security let me advise something more definite : Put 

 ilie queen in totvards evening, so that she may be liberated of a 

 certainty during the quid hours of tlie night. 



Though there are many methods of caging, I will call attention 

 to only one more, which is deserving of some notice. Mr. G. M. 

 Doolittle, an American bee-keeper, uses a flat cage having an 

 area of 4 or 5 inches square ; this, with the queen in, is pressed 

 down to the mid-rib of the comb just over hatching brood. Of 

 course all the young bees hatching out pay homage to the only 

 queen they know ; and the cells thus vacated are occupied by eggs 

 laid by the confined queen. By this time there is not much doubt 

 about the queen being accepted by the rest of the population, and 

 she may be released. In this case it is evident that food must be 

 present, therefore see that the cage also takes in an inch or more of 

 sealed store. This point the inventor of the plan seems to have 

 overlooked, and it should be borne in mind that in any case 

 where food is given to a queen confined in the " Raynor," 

 " Cheshire,'' or any other cage, honey from the same hive slwidd 

 alone he supplied ; and on no account may any of the bees which 

 accompanied her be placed in the cage \ but it is advisable to give 

 her an escort of some half-dozen young workers picked from the 

 comb just after hatching, and taken from the hive in which the 

 queen is to be caged. By these methods the most favourable 

 time for inserting queens is during the months when they are 

 breeding and storing ; but in autumn the bees are more inclined 

 to resent intrusion. 



DIRECT INTRODUCTION. 



A term first applied by myself in the year 1881, will be found 

 much more simple than the foregoing, in that it enables the bee- 

 keeper to insert a queen without loss of time and by two of my 

 own methods to any colony, at any time of the year, whatever be 



