INTRODUCING 
533 
bees are not looking for any, and allow the 
new mother to go on where the previous 
queen left off. On the other hand, if 
either colony is queenless long enough so 
that it sets up a loud buzzing or a cry of 
distress, it will be pretty sure to ball any 
queen that may be given it. 
Young bees just emerged will at any time 
accept any queen. Therefore, it comes 
about that, when one desires to introduce a 
valuable breeder on which he desires to 
take no chances whatsoever, he causes her 
to be released on a frame of very young 
or emerging bees; but consideration will 
be given to this later. 
Virgin queens, if just emerged, will usu¬ 
ally be accepted by a colony, if not too 
long queenless, without the process of in¬ 
troducing or even of caging; but when one 
of these queens comes to be four or five 
days old she is very much more difficult to 
introduce than a normal laying queen. 
When a little honey is coming in, it is 
much easier to introduce and unite bees 
than during a dearth. 
A queen in the height of her egg-laying 
will be accepted far more readily than one 
that has been deprived of egg-laying, as in 
the case of one that has been four or five 
days in the mails. 
Some colonies are more nervous than 
others. To open a hive of such on an un¬ 
favorable day might arouse the inmates to 
a stinging fury. Indeed, such colonies will 
often ball and sting their own queen when 
the hive is opened if the day is unfavor¬ 
able. 
It is easier to introduce toward night, or 
after dark, than during the day. The rea¬ 
son of this is that after dark the excite¬ 
ment of the day has subsided. There is no 
chance for robbing and no reason for vigil. 
In short, bees are not expecting trouble 
and are not inclined to make any. 
A fasting queen, or, rather, a queen that 
is hungry, will usually ask for food, and 
hence will generally be treated more con¬ 
siderately than one that shows fear or fight. 
A colony queenless long enough to have 
ripe queen-cells, or. long enough to have 
laying workers, will not accept a queen as 
readily as one that has been without a 
mother for only a few hours. Reference 
to this will be made later. 
Having stated, therefore, the basic prin¬ 
ciples governing the relation of the queen 
to the bees the reader can now more intel¬ 
ligently proceed to the methods of intro¬ 
duction, most of which are based on the 
theory that the queen to be introduced 
must first have acquired the colony odor of 
her new subjects. 
The cages that are sent thru the mails 
are supplied with soft bee candy (see 
Candy), so that, in case the bees do not 
feed the queen, she will not starve. In 
some cages the bees release the queen by 
eating away the candy and letting her out. 
Other cages are so constructed that bees 
outside the cage must tunnel under the 
cage by tearing away the comb, in order to 
release her. In still other cases the apiarist 
himself liberates her after she has been 
confined the requisite length of time or 
until such time as she has acquired the 
colony odor. 
Most of the cages are sent out by queen- 
breeders with directions how to perform 
this operation; and it is usually safer for 
the beginner to follow these directions im¬ 
plicitly. 
mailing and introducing cage. 
The mailing and introducing cage that 
has been used over the country is called the 
Benton, and is shown in the accompanying 
illustration. It consists of an oblong block 
of wood with three holes bored nearly 
thru, one of the end holes being filled with 
soft candy (see Candy), and the other 
two left for occupancy by the bees and 
queen. On the back of the cover are 
printed full directions for introducing, and 
at each end of the cage is a small hole 
