**The first is, to go to a nucleus or other hive from which I wish to get a queen, and when she is found I take * 76 DOOLITILE ON QUEEN-REARING.
* the frame of brood she is on, bees and all, together with another frame from the same hive, carrying them to the hive from which I am to take the superannuated queen, when they are left with the queen between the two combs, while I secure the poor queen and dispose of her; then I take out two frames from this hive, and place the two frames, brought from the nucleus, in their places, and close the hive. I now shake off the bees from the two frames in front of their own hive, carrying the combs to the nucleus; or if the nucleus will be too weak, I carry bees and all to it. The object in taking the two frames with the queen, is so that while waiting outside of the hive she and the most of the bees may cluster between them, thus becoming quiet. When.placed in the hive, both are put in together, thus leaving the queen quiet among her own bees. In this way I do not lose one queen out of fifty, and as the operation is so simple, and the queen so quickly installed, the advantages more than over-balance so small a loss. The second plan is to go to any nucleus and get the young queen in a round wire-cloth cage (such as all beekeepers have in their apariaries) before looking for the queen to be superseded. After she is in the cage, I place her in my pocket, and close the hive that I took her from, and look for the queen that I wish to remove; having found her, she is killed or otherwise taken care of, and this hive is also closed. I next blow in at the entrance enough smoke to alarm the whole colony, bounding with my flat on top of the hive until I hear a loud roaring inside, which shows that the bees are filling themselves with honey. I now let the queen that I have in the cage run in at the entrance, smoking her as she goes in, while I still keep bounding on the hive. In doing this, nothing but wood-smoke should be used, for if tobacco-smoke were used *many of the bees would be suffocated. If this is done, when there is danger of robbing, I wait till just at night about the operation. If more convenient, the queen can be taken out of the hive at any time during the day, and the operation of putting in the new queen *done just at night. Some seem to think that the operation will be more successful if done in this way, but so far I fall to see any difference as to results. The idea is to cause the bees to fill themselves with honey, at the same time smoking them so that the queen and bees smell alike. This plan is as free from loss as the other, still it is not quite so simple as the first--I only adopt it where it is not handy to use the former. Where any colony has been queenless from three to five days, a queen can generally be successfully introduced by dropping her in honey, and rolling her over in the same till she is thoroughly daubed with it, when the cover to the hive is lifted, and the queen dropt from a spoon right down among the bees. This is equally successful with the others, but I do not like the plan, on account of having to keep the colony queenless so long. Even a queen coming from a distance can generally be safely introduced by this plan.