ApUl 2«, IffS J 
.JOURNAL OF HORTTCULTURi: AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
351 
that it would be so—prospered, and is certainly in a forward con¬ 
dition. It is scarcely necessary to enter into further detail, because, 
as far as it is possible to judge, stocks properly cared for in autumn 
and well supplied with food seem, notwithstanding considerable 
variety of conditions, to pass safely through an English winter, 
provided that the bees are numerous. No queens have yet given 
out, nor do we expect any mishap, although it is too soon to say 
that we are “ out of the wood.” This thorough examination having 
been made, the presence of a fertile queen, a sufficiency of food— 
without too many cells being occupied with honey and pollen—and 
an addition having been made to the covering in all cases ; what, it 
may be asked, will be done next ? Nothing in particular, we reply, 
except to watch and gradually enlarge every hive until the honey 
season begins, when supering arrangements will at once have atten¬ 
tion. If any stock seems to be making small progress a few cells 
of honey may occasionally be uncapped, and possibly a frame or 
two of brood may later on be taken from one stock and added to 
another. If it is necessary to hurry on the bees and to arrive at the 
supering point earlier than would be the case if this let-well-alone 
policy were strictly carried out dribblets of syrup’will be administered 
daily, but—not if it can be avoided. 
Those who, in these first delicious days of the year fast growing 
to maturity have smelt the sweet smell of a strong stock, have had 
a joy for ever. Their enthusiasm is once more aroused—not the 
fever-like enthusiasm of a novice taking up a new hobby, but the 
deep-lying love for his bees which every true bee-keeper must 
experience. Our friendly readers will pardon perhaps this slight 
digression from the more practical side, but occasionally the feeling 
of intense love for bees and Nature wells up in irresistible force 
and cannot be stayed by the comparatively dry barriers of en¬ 
deavouring to -write for the instruction of others and for self- 
improvement. 
In many apiaries there is now a great deal of “ business ” being 
done, bives being constantly opened and various manipulations 
being continually undertaken. If the bee-keeper will use a few' 
grains of common sense he can hardly fail to see that every work 
done in the apiary must either be useful or harmful ; w'e may tell 
him that a young bee-keeper generally does about ten times more 
work for every stock than is either useful, necessary, or profitable. 
Above all we must guard the novice, and—tell it not in Gath—a 
few of the older members of the craft, that “ procrastination ” is 
fatal. If work must be done let it be done at once, and well done ; 
if work is not necessary it is neither useful or profitable ; and if it 
is neither useful or profitable, only an amateur w'ith nothing better 
to do, or a practical bee-keeper who desires to experiment, will 
undertake it.— Felix. 
INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 
Sevekal times I have stated that I could introduce these 
without risk of failure, and I have also promised in these pages 
to tell how I do it ; therefore I propose in this article to redeem 
that promise, and make this problem, which has been the greatest 
trouble to bee-keepers for more than a generation, clear and 
certain. 
Like the introduction of fertile queens, there has been a little 
truth and a little error always mixed, and there have been so many 
assertions and counter assertions, that I had to trace the matter 
■carefully, a work extending over several years, and which I did not 
finish till last season, so difficult and intricate was it, and yet now 
it is done there is nothing new in it ; in fact the only thing I can 
claim as “ new ” is the determination of the causes of failure and 
success, and placing the matter on a scientific basis. 
All people who have done any queen-rearing know that queen¬ 
less bees will readily accept a virgin queen that has just hatched 
and has not mixed with any other bees, while if she has they never 
can succeed to enthrone one. Most assert that the queen is killed. 
Mr. J. E. Pond, jun., says the reception of queens is consequent 
on their behaviour. If they make themselves at home they are 
accepted ; if they are alarmed then they are balled. In effect 
he is correct in this surmise, as if a stock of bees is selected 
that has long been queenless, with no means of rearing a new 
mother, and a virgin queen several days old be dropped in during 
the daytime, the entrance being carefully watched, she will quickly 
be seen to run out in the greatest alarm. I am not aware that 
anyone has ever previously noted this fact. Now take this queen 
and drop her amongst queenless bees that have the means of rearing 
a successor, and she will remain in the hive, but on opening it she 
will be found firmly balled. Here we see in the first case the bees 
were willing to accept her, but she was too frightened to stay ; in 
the second her beliaviour insured her being balled. That such was 
the case may be proved by presenting to the same bees a queen 
just hatched, which will at once be accepted. 
To understand this we must remember what Mr. Bonner 
Chambers tells us to do—viz., consider what is the habit or custom: 
of bees and queens in a state of Nature. By reflecting a little we 
shall see that when a queen hatches it is her habit to make herself 
at home with the bees she emerges amongst; and after having done 
so it is not the habit of any virgin queen to voluntarily go to 
another hive, nor is it the custom of a stock of bees to be visited by 
such a queen. Then, again, it is the invariable custom of just- 
hatched virgin queens as soon as they eat a little honey—which they 
always liave to get themselves from some cell—to run over the 
combs in search of other queen cells, aU of which they ruthlessly 
destroy. A fertilised queen, on the other hand be it noted, does 
not destroy queen cells until the enclosed larvse has been trans¬ 
formed to nymphs, nor does she have occasion to get food herself ; 
thus the natures of the two classes of queens are different. 
Let us now consider (since queens never change their hives 
until they have mated) what takes place in a hive that has lost its 
queen—say from swarming or death. If from swarming, then 
sealed queen cells, brood of all ages, and eggs are left, and before 
these are too old to be developed into queens a vifgin queen hatches 
out and introduces herself to the bees with the greatest assurance ; 
and if the stock is too weak to throw a second swarm she at once 
destroys all the other royal cells, whether sealed or not. A similar 
course also takes place where the reigning queen is lost by death. 
Therefore, the natural course is for bees to be requeened by unmated 
queens only ; but mark well, it is not natural under any circum¬ 
stances for such queens to be alarmed or timid when for the first 
time they are mixing with them. 
We have seen that in the experiments, conductei both by 
myself and Mr. Bonner-Chambers on the Pond’s queen-introduction 
system misnamed Simmins’, that the new queen was always safe 
and unmolested on the third day, solely because she conducted herself 
in a natural manner, and queen cells were formed, which she made 
no attempt to destroy. I thought if I introduced virgin queens 
several days old instead, all cells that were started, or attempted, 
would be destroyed at once, and the queen being of a natural kind 
would be well received. However, when I tried it, removing the 
laying queens in the afternoon and dropping the others in at 
night, I always failed. At this point I thought of what Huber 
says—viz., that bees will not accept a strange queen until an in¬ 
terregnum of twenty-four hours has elapsed. This observer, 
though wonderfully correct in many things, implies that after this 
time they will accept any strange queen offered to them. This, 
we all know, is not so, and therefore he is unjustly discredited in- 
other matters. I now began experimenting again. I allowed at 
least twenty-four hours between the removal of the old queen, 
and sometimes as much as seven days, and in no case was there 
ever a failure. The virgin queens experimented with were all several 
days old—all know they are accepted if just hatched, and all were 
dropped in at the night time. 
Let us consider the natural conditions in this procedui-e. The 
bees are queenless; they are aware of the fact,and are beginning to 
set about rearing a successor, or have already done so. When a- 
virgin queen is found running over the combs she destroys every 
cell, and they accept her because it is their natural habit to do so¬ 
under like circumstances. The queen on her part shows no alarm, 
as it is not their habit to do so in the night time, not having under 
any circumstances any fear of entering a wrong hive during dark, 
or risk of meeting an intruder, so that by morning both bees and 
queen are mutually accepted. 
At the fore part of this article I say that when virgin queens 
several days old are dropped in old queenless bees in the daytime 
they at once rush out in the greatest alarm. Is this instinct not a 
most wise provision of Nature to guard against such queens enter¬ 
ing wrong hives ? We know at the time of mating the queens 
leave their hives several times—often very many times—and as the 
hives they belong to have no means of raising a successor it is very 
unlikely that Nature, which provides for every emergency, should 
leave it possible for a virgin queen to be killed through entering the 
wrong hive. True, they are also endowed with good eyesight and 
memories, but having accidentally got to the entrance of the wrong 
hive another sense comes to their aid, and in a moment they take 
alarm and fly away in search of their own hives ; thus nothing is 
left to chance. 
