180 
DR. MILLER S 
and then set the old hive over all. At the same time the caged 
queen is put into the upper hive. By the time the bees have eaten 
out the candy and liberated the queen, or some time before it, all 
the field-bees have joined the lower hive, and the queen is kindly 
received by the younger bees. In two or three days, when the 
queen has begun to lay, the hive may be returned to its original 
place, and the fielders will make no trouble when they enter. 
Q. What is the best way to introduce a valuable queen? 
A. With a very valuable queen, if you want to be entirely 
safe, proceed in this way: Put two, three, or more frames of 
brood in an upper story over a strong colony, having a queen-i 
excluder between the two stories. In about eight days all the 
brood will be sealed. Now lift the upper story, take away the ex- 
cluder, and cover the hive with wire-cloth, which will not admit 
the passage of a bee. Over the wire-cloth set an empty hive- 
body. One by one lift the frames out of the removed upper story, 
brushing off upon the ground in front of the hive all the bees 
from each comb, and putting the brushed combs into the empty 
upper story. Put your new queen into the upper story and cover 
up, making very sure that not a bee can get in or out. Your 
queen is now alone in the upper story, but will probably have 
company within five minutes, for young bees will be hatching out 
constantly from the sealed brood. No bee can get from one 
story to the other, but the heat can rise from below to keep the 
upper story warm. In about five days you can set this upper story 
on a new stand, giving it entrance for only one bee at a time. If 
your bees act like mine have done, and the circumstances are 
favorable, before night you will see some of the five-day-old bees 
entering the hive with pollen on their legs. 
Q. Please explain the Abbott plan of introducing queens. 
A. Put the new queen in a hive with a provisioned cage with 
the candy protected so the bees of the hive cannot get at it. In 
about two days remove the old queen and give the bees access 
to the candy so they may liberate the queen. 
Q. I wish you would explain as clearly as possible how to in- 
troduce a queen by the smoke method. 
A. In “Gleanings in Bee Culture,” what you call the smoke 
plan of introduction was thus given by Arthur C. Miller, of Rhode 
Island: "A colony to receive a queen has the entrance reduced 
to about a square inch with whatever is convenient, as grass, 
weeds, rags, or wood, and then about three puffs of thick, white 
