BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
If all has workt as it usually does, the bees will be found spread out evenly over the cage, the same as they are on any of the rest of the combs. When such is the case, the cage is to be carefully lifted from over the queen, letting her and the young bees that have hatch during her confinement, go where they please, keeping watch all the while to see that the bees treat her kindly; if they do this (as they will nineteen times out of twenty), the comb is to be placed in the hive; if not, she is caged again. In from one-half to one hour after liberating her, look at the queen again, and if she is now treated as their old queen was before her removal, the hive is closed and she is considered safely introduced.
If, on the contrary, the bees are found clustered thickly on the cage, biting the wire-cloth and showing signs of anger, the frame is to be placed back in the hive and left: till the next day, when, if they still show the same sym
bees will accept of the queen after I take the cage from over her, without further trouble. Now there are no bees hatching from the combs, so in caging the queen I only see that she is in the centre of the cluster, and has plenty of honey to eat inside of the cage; for when a queen is not laying she has to help herself to honey the same as any other bee.
In using these cages, the comb next to them should be left a bee-space from the cage, so that tile bees can go all around it, thus getting acquainted with the new queen much more quickly than they otherwise would. If this space cannot be procured in any other way, one frame should be left out of the hive for the time being.
The advantage that this plan has over any other where the queen is to be caged in the hive, is in the young bees hatching out in the cage with the queen; and as they have known no other mother, they accept her at once, thus forming an escort which the older bees, sooner or later, are obliged to accept as being a part and parcel of the colony.
By any of the foregoing plans there is very little danger of losing a queen, yet none of them are absolutely safe; nor would I use them were I to receive a very valuable queen, say one worth $10, for with such queens we do not wish to take a particle of risk.
After studying on the method of forming nuclei by the "caged bees" plan, as I gave in the chapter on that subject, I saw that by using that process I had an absolutely safe plan of introducing a laying queen, even were she worth $100. I have used this plan with all the valuable queens for several years, and have not lost a single queen, nor do I believe that I ever shall lose one by it, unless she should happen to fly away in putting her in the box with the bees; nor will she do this as long as I clip all of my queens' wings.
My usual method of using this plan, is to get bees enough from the upper stories of different hives to form a good, strong colony, doing it just the same as I gave in the chapter on forming nuclei, only I take the bees out of four or five different hives, and off from ten to fifteen combs, according to the strength that I want the colony. After having the bees in the box, they are treated just the same as there described, giving them the valuable queen in the same way that the virgin queen was given.
In hiving them, give as many empty combs, or combs of honey, as you choose, but do not give any more brood at this time than you did to the nucleus; for if more brood is given, the bees sometimes will swarm out with the queen in
DOOLITTLE ON QUEE-REARING. 81.
a few days, where made so strong, the same as a natural swarm. If you desire to give brood, do it by giving a frame or two at one time every few days, after waiting four or five days from the time of living before giving the first frames.
If you do not have bees in upper stories having a queen-exluder under them, then go to two or three colonies in ordinary hives, look for the queens, and as fast as they are found put the frames that they are on outside of the hives. Now smoke and jar the bees on two or three frames from each hive, till they fill themselves with honey, when you are to shake as many bees down through the funnel into the box as you want in your colony, and proceed as before.
If you desire to introduce the queen to a certain colony, (the same as we have been doing by the other plans given), kill or take away the old queen and cause the bees to fill themselves with honey the same as in the last instance; when all the bees that you can get are to be shaken off the combs through the funnel into the box.
Having all of the bees in the box that you can possibly obtain, treat them the same as before until you are ready to hive them. After they are placed in the cellar or other cool place, take all of the combs having brood in them, and give them to the other colonies, leaving one or two frames of honey in the hive to hold till night the bees which you did not succeed in getting into the box and those returning from the fields. These combs should be put in the centre of the hive, so that when night comes the bees will be mostly clustered on them instead of about the side of the hive, as would be the case if they were left next to one side of the hive. When you hive the bees having the new queen with them, take these two combs with the bees out of the hive, putting in other combs as before, using only one having a little brood in it, and that taken from another hive, so that they are not given their own brood.
Having all prepared, proceed to hive the bees as was done with the nucleus; or, if preferred, the bees can be shaken down at the entrance, for, as this is their old home, they can go nowhere else even should they try to do so. After the larger pert of the bees are in the hive, shake the bees off from the two combs and let them run in with the others. In five days commence to give the brood back again, and keep on doing so occasionally until all is back in the hive as it was before.
The above I believe to be an infallible plan for introducing queens, and well pays for the time and trouble, when we have a very valuable queen coming from a distance,which we would not lose on any account; yet it will hardly pay to spend so much time on ordinary queens, except by way of experiment, or when desiring to make new colonies in addition to introducing queens. Where a queen comes to me very unexpectedly, I always use this plan, taking the bees from an upper story or two, thus forming a small colony with the queen, which colony is built up later on by giving frames of hatching brood. Using it in this way it always gives me the assurance of success in any case of emergency.
## Chapter Xvii. Introducing virgin queens.
That just-hatcht virgin queens which are so young as to be white, weak and fuzzy, can be introduced to any colony that will accept a sealed queen-cell, is a fact known to all; and if there was no need of ever introducing virgin queens older than these, this chapter would never have been written.
However, in these days of progress, and of close competition in the queen traffic, it is very desirable to have some plan whereby we can introduce a virgin queen from five to eight days old, to a nucleus, as soon as a laying queen is taken away from it; as well as to introduce one into any other colony where we wish to place a virgin queen coming to us from a distance, which we have ordered to improve our stock by a direct cross between her and one of our drones. From the fact that not one colony in 500 will take such a virgin queen, when giving her at the time of taking away the laying one, comes the reason that such a plan of safe introduction will be of greater value to us than it would be could we succeed in introducing these queens as well as we can a laying queen.
On no one thing in bee-keeping have I spent so much thought as on how to successfully introduce virgin queens from four to ten days old; and I am happy to say that I am master of the situation; not that I have dug it out all alone, for I have not. I have pickt up little things here and there for several years, and by saving every little item that proved to be in advance of what I already had, and applyingthem, together with what I could study out myself, eventually gave me success. As I said in the preface, I cannot give credit to all from whom I have gained knowledge, for I have not tried to keep the authors of all these things in mind; besides, there has been scarcely a writer in the past, who has written for our bee-papers, from whom I have not gained some light; so if I were to single out some I would do injustice to others. I claim very little as original with myself, and I am glad to know that it is the "littles" of the past, coming from the thousands who have engaged in our pursuit, that have made the "mickle" of the present; hence very few are able to say, "I am more holy than thou.". My first ideas in this matter came from the need. of procuring a laying queen from a nucleus more often than could possibly be done by the old plan of giving the nucleus a queen-cell 24 hours after taking a laying queen away from it, in order to overcome the low prices to which queens had fallen, owing to the close competition in this branch of our industry. If a five-days-old virgin queen could be introduced into a nucleus so that she would commence to lay in five days from the time the other was removed, two queens could be taken from one nucleus during the same time we had formerly taken one. All know that by the old plans a laying queen cannot be taken from a nucleus oftener than once in 10 or 12 days. This one item alone I considered worth striving for; but when it came to be fully understood that it was an object for us as apilarists to change the blood in our stock by a direct cross as often as possible, so as to give greater life and vigor to our bees, then such introduction of oldish virgin queens became almost a necessity. Since this idea was first advanced it has gained ground rapidly in the minds of our best bee-keepers; and I believe that the day is not far distant when the traffic in virgin queens will assume greater proportions than at the present. A virgin queen is not fit to start on a journey until she is at least 24 hours old; and as from 2 to 4 days must be required in her transit, none of the plans of introducing young virgin queens would work in this case. Without taking the reader over much of the ground which led to the discovery of a plan for the safe introduction of virgin queens, I will give the three plans which I employ--using them according to the circumstances which I am placed under, as to the number of virgin queens on hand, length of time the nucleus or colony has been queen-less, etc.
Some 10 or 12 years ago I had a colony rearing queens, that had a nice lot of queen-cells just sealed, when one day a virgin queen escaped from me and flew out of sight. I waited for her to come back, but as she did not I concluded that she was lost. Upon going to get my queen-cells when it was time for them to hatch, I found the cells all torn down, and the queen that I had lost was in the hive just commencing to lay.
Here I was shown that a colony that had been queenless long enough to have their queen-cells capt, would accept a virgin queen under almost any condition. In fact, I had read of this before, but nothing convinces us as does something which comes close at home, to ourselves or our family Through this loss of cells, which occurred just when I needed them very much, came something of great value to me, which I might not have fully known had I not lost them.
From this, I found that whenever I came across a nucleus or colony having queen-cells sealed, all that I had to do to introduce a queen was to go to my queen-nursery and pick out a nice virgin queen and drop her in some honey; when, after pouring some of the honey out of a tea-spoon on her back, and rolling her about in it until she was thoroughly daubed, the quit was raised from over the frames, and after scooping her up together with some of the honey, I turned the whole down among the bees between the combs. The hive was then closed, and I would usually have a laying queen in three or four days. To prevent the queen from flying, when introducing her in this way, I held the mouth of the cage close down to the honey (which I generally take in a tea-cup), when, by a sudden jar, caused by striking the cage, she was thrown down into the honey, thus daubing her wings, after which there was no further danger.
This plan I also use when receiving a virgin queen from abroad, if I have a colony that has been queenless long enough to have cells sealed. Of course we do not expect many colonies in this condition, but all queen-rearers, as well as apolarists in general, have more or less of them coming from an unexpected loss of queens.
The second plan is one that I use with younger virgin queens--say those from one to three days old--and in all cases where it is not convenient to use either the first or third. It is as follows:
Make a round wire-cloth cage, about an inch in diameter and three-and-one-half inches long. Into one end of this fit a permanent stopper, and for the other saw off a piece of an old, soft-wood broom-handle, five inches long. Whittle one end so that it will go into the cage one-half an inch, when a five-eighths inch hole is to be bored through it lengthwise. Now fill this hole with "Good" candy, made of granulated sugar and honey, packing it in with a plunger quite tightly. Next, put the virgin queen into this cage, and put in the provisioned stopper.
When you go to remove the laying queen, take the cage along with you, and after having removed her and replaced the frames in the hive, lay the cage lengthwise between the top-bars of the two frames having the most brood in them. Put a quilt over all, and close the hive.
As it takes the bees about four days to burrow through, or dig out, the five inches of candy, they become pretty well acquainted with their loss and the existing state of affairs; hence they are ready to accept the queen when she is set at liberty by the removal of the candy. In about eight days time (counting from when the cage was laid on the frames), I generally find this queen laying, without havng to open the hive, except as I do it to take out laying queens.
Right here I wish to say, that the cage here described is just such an one as I use about the apiary for all general purposes, except that when so using it I put in a piece of corn-cob for a stopper instead of the one filled with candy.
The third plan, and the only one that I know of that is absolutely safe at all times (for I sometimes have a loss with either of the other two) is as follows:
Get out a little block two inches long by one inch square, through which is to be bored a five-eighths inch hole, boring the same through the block lengthwise. This is to be the base of the cage. Next bore a one-half inch hole through the centre, so as to cross the five-eighths inch hole. Now get two pieces of frame-stuff, four inches long by one inch wide, and one-fourth of an inch thick, boring a five-eighths inch hole in each, near one end, to correspond with the five-eighths inch hole which was bored lengthwise through the little block. Having these ready, nail one to each end of the little block, so that the holes bored in them will match the hole in the block, thus making one continuous hole straight through.
Next get a piece of wire-cloth, eight inches long by two-and-one-half inches wide, and nail it to the frame-stuff and lower edge of the block, so as to form a cage three inches deep by two inches wide and one inch thick, through which the bees can become acquainted with the queen. Now drive two three-fourths inch wire-nails into the edges of the frame-stuff, driving one into each piece and letting it project one-fourth of an inch, or, in other words, do not drive them up to within one-fourth of an inch. With a pair of cutting pliers, cut off the heads of each nail, and file them to a sharp point, so that you can fasten the cage on the side of the hive, or to whatever you like, by simply pressing these points into the wood.
The cage is now ready for use. To use it, first put the virgin queen into the cage by letting her run through the half-inch hole down into it, when a long stopper is put into the hole to keep her from returning. Now proceed to fill the five-elgiths inch hole with the "Good" candy, as used in the shipping-cages (this made of powdered sugar instead of granulated, as will be explained further on), putting it in at both ends, and pressing it around the long stopper down in the centre. When this is done, remove the stopper and fill the place where it came from with more of the candy, when the cage and queen is ready for the hive.
Next, take a frame having only a starter of foundation in it, and the caged queen, and proceed to the hive where you wish to take away a laying queen; after having caught her, take all of the frames out of the hive and stick the cage on the side of the hive where you want it, by pressing it against the wood. Now put in the frame with the foundation-starter and adjust the division-board, closing the hive. Next, shake'all.of the bees off the combs near the entrance, letting them run in, and give these combs to another colony to care for. They are now to be left for four or five days, when you will find a laying queen' (providing the queen was four or five days old when put into the cage), and also the frame partly-filled with worker-comb, in which the queen has laid.
At times when no honey is coming in, the bees are to be fed what they need every night, so as to place them in the same condition that they would be were honey coming in from the fields. To thus feed, I place a division?board feeder in the hive, fastening the caged queen to that instead of to the hive; or, if preferred, the cage can be fastened to the division-board.
The candy is placed in the block, and the different holes made in it so that the bees may be good-natured when coming to the queen; and also to keep the bees from liberating the queen till they have given up all hopes of getting their laying queen or brood back again, for they would kill her at once if she was liberated sooner.
It generally takes the bees from 8 to 12 hours to eat out the candy, being about the time needed to get them reconciled to their new situation. If preferred, the cage described in the second plan can be used instead of this one, by cutting off the provisioned stopper to one inch in length; but the last gives a little better satisfaction, inasmuch as the bees have a larger surface of wire-cloth to cluster upon, and they can be eating candy at several places at once, hence they do not rush into the cage so fast when an opening,s made into it.
If the queen was not given to the bees when the combs were taken away, many, if not all of them, would go to other hives; for altho the bees do not like her at first, yet she holds them where they belong, as they consider her better than nothing. Do not give them back their brood till the queen begins laying, for if you do they will at once kill the queen, or "hug" her till she is nearly or quite spoiled; for in nothing are bees so determined as they are not to accept of a virgin queen five or more days old, immediately after having their mother taken from them.
When the queen commences to lay, take out the partly-filled frame and give back the combs that you took away from the bees at first, allowing this queen to stay in the hive a few days before you try the operation with the same colony again; for if you keep right on giving virgin queens and taking laying ones out, the colony will soon decline, on account of no young bees hatching to take the place of the old ones which are dying all the while. Young bees could be shaken in the hive every little while if it was preferred to giving back the combs, and in this way a laying queen could be taken from a hive every five days. Of course, where this plan is used with virgin queens coming from abroad, the brood will be put back to remain, as we will desire to keep the queen.
If the colony is other than a nucleus, we shall want to give two or three frames with starters of foundation, so as to give the colony the room they need. These partly-filled frames are used to advantage during the swarming season for new swarms, so that a colony treated in this way is doing valuable work all this time, besides getting our virgin queens fertilized.
I have never lost a queen in this way, no matter if she was 12 days old when placed in the cage; and I consider it an absolutely safe plan for introducing virgin queens, and one of great benefit to those who desire to improve their stock by a direct crossing of queens and drones; but for the purpose of getting queens fertilized in nuclei, oftenerthan by the old plans, I doubt if it pays, on account of the large amount of work which it requires.
Before leaving the subject of introducing queens 1 wish to say, that where any plan of introduction is used by which the bees are liable to start queen-cells from their own brood before the introduced queen is liberated, I think that the idea which prevails--that the bee-keeper should look over the combs and destroy all of these cells--is fallacious. All of my experience in this matter proves that a queen will be as quickly accepted when such cells ard allowed to remain and when so accepted the bees themselves will destroy the cells. Where I had queen-cells sealed in any colony, I always roll a queen in honey and drop her into the hive, letting the bees attend to the queen-cells when they get ready; and it is a rare thing that I lose a queen by this process, even when such queen is a virgin.
KEEPING A RECORD OF CELLS, QUEENS, ETC.
When I kept but few bees, or reared but few extra queens, I had no trouble in keeping track of what each hive contained; and even where I am working 100 small colonies for queen-rearing, I know what is in each hive in a kind of general way, but not enough so that should I trust to memory many blunders would be made. For this reason, when I began queen-rearing as a business, I found that I must have some way of knowing precisely what was in each hive, so I adopted something to help me in this matter.
The first thing that I used was small, flat stones, four of which were placed under the bottom-board of each hive; so that when an operation was performed with any hive, these stones could be made to tell me very nearly what I wanted to know, from just glancing over the tops of the hives, as some of them were placed in different positions, each time that I workt at the hive, to denote what had been done with it. These stones, together with a piece of section to keep the dates on (the piece of section being placed under the cover of the hive, to keep it from getting wet), does very well, where not over 10 to 20 nuclei are workt.
To use the stones intelligently, we must jot down somewhere what the different positions which the stones occupy indicate, until we get so accustomed to it that our memory is always posted in this matter. For instance: If I look over a hive on June 1, and give the bees a queen-cell, I place one of the stones on the right-hand front corner of the hive, and put that date on the section. A glance over the yard shows me that all the hives having a stone on that corner had queen-cells placed in them the last thing which I did; and the strip of section will tell me when that was. In the same way when I take out a queen I put this stone on the left-hand front corner, which indicates that the queen from that hive is missing; and when I find a queen-cell hatch, or a young queen in the hive, this stone is placed on the left-hand back corner, while for a laying queen it is placed on the right-hand back corner, the date being put on the piece of section each time so that the last date shows when the stone was changed, the two together thus telling me all that I wish to know. The main trouble with this plan is that it requires the lifting of the cover to find the date; but as I said at starting, this will answer pretty well where but few colonies are workt for queens.