BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Much difficulty is sometimes experienced in getting the bees to stay in these small hives. The plan usually recommended is to shake the bees into a wireloth cage and confine them there for several hours. Four or five hours later run in a virgin queen among them. At nightfall, shake them into the mating box and leave them undisturbed for a few days. Some of the old bees may return to their former hive the next morning, but most of them are likely to remain. There is some danger that they may swarm out with the queen when she comes out for her mating flight. However, after one queen has been successfully mated and there is some brood in the little hive, there will be less trouble with the next one. These little hives must be watched to make sure that they do not at any time become short of food, otherwise they sometimes swarm out and leave the brood.
The available space is so small that the queen can be left but a very short time. The two little combs are soon filled with eggs and with no more room to lay, the queen may lead a small swarm, and thus desert the hive.
Another plan of stocking these hives is to shake a lot of bees from several hives into a box with wirecloth top and bottom similar to the Alley swarm box, and keep them confined for several hours. It is desirable that these bees be brought from a distance, if possible. When ready to stock the mating hives, wet the bees enough to prevent flying readily and dip them out with a tin dipper, turning a sufficient quantity into each compartment. A supply of virgin queens is ready at hand, and as each compartment is filled, a virgin is dropped into a dish of honey and then into the compartment with the bees. The entrance is opened at night to prevent the loss of bees before the excitement subsides. This is the plan practiced at the Root yards.
## Chapter 11 Combining Mating with Making of Increase.
The usual methods of artificial increase, such as division or formation of nuclei to be built up, weaken the colony to a considerable extent. Should the season prove unfavorable
Figure 11: A queen-rearing apiary in Tennessee.
after nuclei are formed, it may be necessary to feed them for a long period of time, only in the end to find it necessary to unite them again to get them strong enough for winter. Getting queens mated in an upper story is not new; yet there are some elements in the following plan which differ somewhat from methods previously given to the public.
The author has experimented to a limited extent in the hope of finding a plan which takes nothing from the parent colony, other than the honey necessary to rear the brood composing the new colony. There is no risk, since the old colony is not weakened by removing part of the field force, and the division is not made until the new colony is strong enough to shift for itself under almost any conditions. The following plan comes near realizing this ideal, having been uniformly successful in a limited way, even under unfavorable conditions. This is the outgrowth of a system of swarm control in the pro
Figure 35: Queen-mating nuclei under the pine trees of Alabama.
duction of extracted honey, as described in Productive Beekeeping.
If the extracted honey producer can keep his colony together during the season, he should be able to get maximum results. Some increase is necessary in most any apiary, with any kind of system, to replace such colonies as are lost through failing queens, poor wintering or other causes, even though the beekeeper does not care to make extensions.
If the bees can be kept from swarming and the young queen be mated in a separate compartment, she can rear her own colony in due time, and they can be removed without reducing the product of the old queen, whose progeny will remain with the parent colony.
To begin with, when the colony becomes populous, place the queen on a frame of brood in an empty hivebody and fill out with empty combs. This is set on the regular hivestand occupied by the colony. The working force coming from the field will find their queen with an abundance of room in which to lay. This is the system of swarm control advocated by Demaree to this point. Now place a queen excluder over the hivebody containing the queen, and over this, a super of empty combs. On top of these is set the original hivebody containing the brood. A hole is bored in this upper hivebody to give the bees an extra entrance above. About twenty-four hours later a ripe queen cell is placed in the upper story with the brood. The queen will emerge in a day or two, and, in due time, will leave the hive on her mating flight, by way of the augur hole. Within a few days more she will be laying in the upper hivebody, while the activities of the bees will continue without interruption in the lower story. Within three weeks all the brood from the old queen (in the upper story) will have emerged. The brood which now appears in the upper story is a net addition to the resources of the colony, and, when the upper story is nearly filled with brood, it can be removed and placed on a new stand without checking the work of the colony.
To illustrate: A strong colony was given a queen cell as above described on May 21st. On July 14th, the upper hivebody with a young queen and seven frames of brood were removed to form a new colony. The strength of the parent colony was little affected apparently. Possible swarming had been prevented, temporarily at least, by the Demaree plan of placing the old queen in the empty hive below. There were two colonies better than any parent colony and swarm we had that season. In this way there had been no risk or loss. The new colony was not removed from its parent until both were provided for, neither was the possible crop cut short by dividing the working force of the parent colony at a critical time.
After three years of success with this method the author feels confident that it will prove successful on a large scale. Both queens can be left in the hive until the close of the honey-flow if desired, but there is little to be gained by leaving the queen above after her chamber is filled with brood. If both are left in the hive until late in the fall, one of the queens is likely to disappear.
If desired, the process can be repeated as soon as the upper story has been removed, as by this time the old queen will have filled the lower story with brood again. By beginning early, it should be possible to make two and possibly three new colonies, without reducing the honey crop from the parent colony to a serious extent.
This same plan might be used for the purpose of mating additional queens while making some increase, by the breeder who wishes to accomplish both ends at the same time. The method is particularly valuable to the honey producer who wishes to make some increase or rear queens for use in his own apiary, without reducing the honey crop. If increase is not especially desired, the same plan can be worked for the purpose of superseding queens. When the young queen has become nicely established in the upper chamber, the old queen can be removed from below and the position of the bodies reversed. It would be well to permit both queens to continue laying until the height of the honeyflow, in order to get as large a field force as possible for storing the crop.
## Chapter XI
### 1.1.1 Shipping Queens
The Benton cage, Figure 36, is almost universally used in this country for shipping purposes. So generally is it used, that it is as staple as any other item of beekeeping equipment, and can be purchased through any dealer in supplies. While cages ready stocked with candy are offered for sale, most queen breeders prefer to make their own candy and thus save some cost, as well as making it fresh as needed.
### 1.1.2 Making the Candy
Candy for queen cages is made of honey and sugar. Under the postal regulations it is necessary to boil the honey for at least thirty minutes, unless the apiary from which it and the queens are taken has been inspected by some duly qualified officer, who is authorized to issue a certificate of health.
Care must be used, also, to make sure that the sugar used contains no starch. Powdered sugar is used for candy making, and some powdered sugar contains starch, which is detrimental to the bees confined for long in the cages.
Heat the honey and stir in as much of the powdered sugar as can be mixed in by stirring. When no more can be added by stirring, spread the powdered sugar on a mixing board and remove the dough to the board and mix it like a batch of biscuits. Some experience is necessary to determine when it is just the right consistency, neither too hard nor too soft.
According to Root, boiled honey as required by the postal regulations, does not give satisfactory results where queens are confined for long journeys. Since the idea of the regulation is
Figure 36. The Benton mailing cage.
to prevent the spread of disease through the honey, he recommends the use of invert sugar as a substitute for the honey.
Another kind of candy made without the use of honey, is used by some breeders. This is made by using 12 pounds of granulated sugar, 1_%_ bounds candy-makers' glucose, 1_%_ quarts of water and _%_ teaspoonful of cream of tartar. The cream of tartar and glucose are added to the water and heated together in a kettle. The sugar is added after the mixture comes to a boil, stirring continually while putting in the sugar. After the sugar has all been dissolved, stop stirring and let it heat to 238 degrees. Then remove from the fire and let cool to 120 degrees, and stir again until it looks like paste, when it is ready for use.
**Caging the Queens.**
With a few trials, one will shortly get the knack of catching a queen off the comb by her wings. Holding the cage open end downward in one hand, it is easy to so place her head in the opening that she will catch her front feet on the wood, and readily climb up into the cage. When she goes in, the thumb should be placed over the opening until a worker is caught, and ready to follow in similar manner. The novice at queen rearing often makes the mistake of placing too few bees in the cage with a queen. It is well to place as many workers in the cage as there is room for, _without crowding,_ especially if the journey to be taken is a long one. As a rule the queen will be the last to die, if the bees are in normal condition when placed in the cage. It often happens that queens received from a distant place are still alive, with all their attendant workers dead in the cage. Of course the queen'would not much longer survive after the workers were all dead. If the candy is properly made and sufficient in quantity, a queen will often live for several weeks in a cage, with sufficient attendants.
After queens are caged they should be placed in the mails as quickly as possible to avoid confining them longer than is necessary. Although they live for a considerable time in the cages, one can hardly believe that the confinement is conducive to the health of the queen, and the shorter the time necessary to get her to her destination, the better.
**What the Buyer has a Right to Expect.**
When a man sends his money for a queen in response to an advertisement, he has a right to expect that no inferior queens be sent, even though he buy untested stock. Some breeders have the reputation of sending out mismatched queens that have been laying for a period long enough to show the fact, as untested queens. While few breeders guarantee that untested queens will be purely mated, to knowingly send out mismatched stock, to fill orders for untested queens, is certainly dishonest. It is needless to say that no reputable breeder would do so. The breeder who expects to establish a paying business has no asset so valuable as the confidence of his customers, and this is only secured by sending out good stock and standing ready to be more than reasonable in making good any losses.
The buyer has reason to expect that he will receive pure queens, carefully reared; that the breeder shall maintain his mating nuclei in localities as free as possible from impure stock, and entirely free from disease.
**Grading.**
There is a great difference in the practice of different breeders in the way queens are graded. Some advertise only three grades, untested, tested and select tested queens. Others make five or more grades, adding select-untested queens and breeders. There should be some effort made to establish a standard by which a buyer can tell in advance what he is likely to get from an order for any one of these grades.
In general, an untested queen is one which has been mated and has been permitted to lay for a few days, but not long enough for the emergence of the workers. Breders who make it a rule to send out all queens which are reared, regardless of quality, are not likely to build up a permanent business.
No poor queens should be sent out in any case, except by special understanding, and then not for breeding purposes. There is a small demand for queens for scientific purposes, which can be supplied with mismated or otherwise inferior stock without injury to anyone. Such queens should never be sent to a beekeeper for introduction into normal colonies for honey production.
A tested queen is generally one which has been permitted to lay until her workers begin to emerge, and thus by their markings demonstrate the pure mating of their mother. She should properly demonstrate other qualities also. Selected and extra select-tested or choice select-tested queens are, of course, queens which for one reason or another are more promising than the average of tested queens. Too many grades offers a good chance for the breeder to get an extra price from a buyer, without giving an equivalent in value. It is very true that queens showing unusual traits are worth more than the general run of queens, but it is difficult to grade the different degrees of behaviour into a half dozen different classes and always give a uniform value.
Virgin queens, are of course, unmated queens. While there may be occasionally a good reason for the purchase of virgins, as a rule the practice is not to be encouraged. The difficulty of introducing a virgin after she is several days old and consequent danger of loss, is one good reason why they should not be shipped. The danger that they will become too old for mating before a favorable opportunity is offered, is another. The breeder who confines his business principally to the sale of untested queens, and who gives good value for the price asked, is the one who has the fewest complaints.
Much dissatisfaction arises from the sale of breeding queens at high prices. The buyer who pays five or ten dollars for a breeding queen, will too often expect too much of her, and, consequently, be disappointed. Then it often happens that a queen old enough to demonstrate her value as a breeder, will be superseded shortly after her introduction into a strange colony.
Quecens that have been laying heavily suffer seriously from the confinement in a small cage and the journey through the mails. Often they will never do as well for the buyer as they have done previously, and he is inclined to feel that he has not been treated fairly. As a rule, the same money invested in young untested queens, will bring far better results to the buyer, as well as being better for the seller. If a half dozen young queens are purchased from a breeder with good stock, at least one of them is quite likely to prove excellent. The best queen that the author ever has known he secured as an untested queen at a nominal price. There is probably no extensive queen rearing yard which would part with as good a queen for fifty dollars after she had demonstrated her value. In fact, she would not be for sale at any price, for she would be too valuable as a breeder. Yet the chances are that, after she had demonstrated her ability by outdoing everything else in the apiary for three successive seasons, she would be superseded within a few weeks after being sent through the mails.
Buyers should bear in mind that old queens which have laid heavily for one or more seasons, cannot be expected to repeat their former performances after a journey by mail. Such queens can only be shipped safely on combs in a nucleus, where they can continue laying lightly for some time. Someone has compared the sudden checking of the work of a laying queen, with the shipment of a cow, which is a heavy milker, without drawing her milk for several days. Neither can be expected to be as good again.
## Chapter XII The Introduction of Queens.
In order to be successful in the introduction of queens, it is necessary to overcome the antagonism of the colony toward a stranger. It must be borne in mind that, normally, a strange bee will be recognized as an enemy or a robber and at once driven out or killed. In order that the queen be welcomed as a member of the community, it is necessary that she be permitted to acquire the colony odor, and that she become somewhat familiar with her new surroundings so that she will not manifest, by her own excitement, the fact that she is a stranger. There are many indications of the colony odor and, in the absence of proof to the contrary, it is safe to assume that the bees depend upon this common odor as a means of identification of the members of the community.
There are many different methods of introduction of queens, which are followed with greater or lesser degrees of success. All these methods may be divided into two classes: those which depend upon the confinement of the queen until she acquires the common characteristics of the hive, as the cage methods; and those which create such an abnormal condition and so much confusion in the hive, that the undue excitement of one or more individuals will not be noticed, as the smoke or other direct methods.
Under the first plan, the bees are at first antagonistic to the new queen, which is recognized as a stranger, but are unable to reach her because of the barrier furnished by the screen covering the cage. After a time the bees recognize the fact that no other queen is present in the hive, the antagonism disappears, and she is accepted as the natural mother of the community.
Under any method in the second class, the colony is thrown into a state of excitement and uproar, to such an extent that the agitation and fear manifested by the new queen, upon finding
found to be paying but little attention to her presence, it is usually safe to remove the cage.
The Benton mailing cages are stocked with candy before the queens are confined. Usually there will be quite a little of this candy still left, at the time the queens are to be introduced. If so, all that is necessary is to remove the old queen, remove the paper across the exit hole which is filled with candy, and leave it to the bees to remove the candy, and release the queen. It is likely to require from one to three days to remove the candy, and by that time, there is little danger to the new queen. If but little candy remains, the paper should be left over the hole for a day or two before removing. When the paper is removed, if the candy is almost gone, a little broken comb honey may be pushed into the cavity. Bees are likely to be friendly to the queen which has been caged in the hive for two days, and the bees which remove the honey are likely to gorge themselves to the point of quietude.
Some beekeepers by going to a little extra trouble, insure
Figure 38: A Mississippi queen-rearing apiary.
success by this method. When new queens are ordered they cage the old queens in the hive until the newcomers arrive. The old queens are then destroyed, and the new ones placed in the same cages and replaced in.the same hives. The cages have already acquired the hive odors, and the bees have become accustomed to the presence of their queens in the cages. By the time the candy has been removed, there is a very small element of danger.
The easiest time for direct introduction of queens is during a heavy honeyflow. At such a time the bees will be in a constant state of activity because of the wealth of honey coming in, and queens can be introduced with a minimum of danger. At such times, the author has gone to the hives to be requeened, caught the old queens and run in the new ones, with little effort to disarrange the affairs of the community, yet the plan worked with entire success with colony after colony. Many of the direct methods which are so successful during a honeyflow, must be followed very carefully under other conditions, or failure will result.
There are several of the direct methods, familiarly known as smoke method, flour method, water, and honey methods, etc. The same principle underlies them all. In every case the object is to develop such an abnormal condition within the hive, that the change of queens can be made without the fact being discovered by the bees.
The smoke method has recently been exploited as something new. Some of the details of the practice are all that is new, for Alley described a similar way of introducing queens by means of tobacco smoke as long ago as 1885. He directed as follows:able to the beekeeper with a lighted smoker. He describes his plan as follows:
"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 smoke--because such smoke is safe--is blown in and the entrance closed. It should be explained that there is a seven-eighths inch space below the frames, so that the smoke which is blown in at the entrance, readily spreads and penetrates to all parts of the hive. In from fifteen to twenty seconds the colony will be roaring. The small space at the entrance is now opened; the queen is run in, followed by a gentle puff of smoke, and the entrance again closed and left closed for about ten minutes, when it is reopened, and the bees allowed to ventilate and quiet down. The full entrance is not given for an hour or more, or even until the next day."
Neither of the smoke methods above given, nor, for that matter, most of the direct methods, are entirely reliable under adverse conditions. The great advantage in the use of such a method is the saving in time. Some queen breeders of the author's acquaintance have used the smoke method extensively for this reason, and with good success. Introducing a queen which is taken from a hive or nucleus and given at once to another, the same is true.
Figure 39: A queen-rearing apiary in Georgia.
er, is a much simpler matter than the introduction of a queen which has been caged for a week and probably travelled several hundred miles in a mailbag, where she had opportunity to acquire all kinds of foreign odors. The experienced man will soon learn when he can with safety depend upon a short cut, and when there is danger in doing so.
### Honey and Flour Methods.
These methods are similar except that in one case honey is used and in the other case flour is the medium. The honey method is used with good success in introducing virgins to bees in packages, after they have been confined for a few hours. The queen is simply dropped into a cup of honey and entirely submerged in it, and then dropped in among the bees, which at once proceed to clean her up. For introducing queens into full colonies, this plan does not always succeed.
Where the queen is covered with flour, she may be accepted or not, depending much upon other conditions. Where the honey method is used, the queen is much more likely to be accepted if the honey in which she is dipped is taken from the hive to which she is to be given, at the time of her introduction.
### Water Method.
This method requires a little more trouble, but is generally successful according to reports, and also according to the author's experience. The bees are shaken from the combs, and sprinkled with water until they are soaking wet. The new queen is wet likewise and dropped on the pile of wet bees in the bottom of the hive. The combs are then replaced and the hive covered.
Neither of these methods is attractive, since it hardly seems like proper treatment to give a valuable queen.
### Introduction of Virgins.