Page:How to Keep Bees.djvu/202

160 Mr. Root tests a colony which he suspects is queenless in the following clever way: He takes a cage containing a laying queen and holds it over the frames so that it touches them and the bees may thus get the scent. If the bees have no queen they express their pleasure at this godsend in a very pretty manner by a joyful fluttering of the wings, which conveys the idea of happiness to even our dull senses. To such a colony, the queen may be given with no formalities.

HOW TO INTRODUCE A QUEEN

The colony should be made good-natured by having plenty of food. If there is scarcity of honey, the bees should be fed for a day or so, great care being taken not to start other colonies to robbing by exposing the syrup. The queen is then introduced in a queen-cage, which should be placed between the brood-combs. This should be done as carefully as possible without disturbing the bees. At the end of forty-eight hours an examination should be made, and if the bees are balling the cage, she should be left twenty-four hours longer. When the bees gather around the cage in normal numbers she may be entrusted to them without fear.

QUEEN-CAGES

First of these are the shipping-cages, and it is a thrilling moment when one takes a package from the mail, labelled "Queen Bee, Deliver Quick." And it is still more exciting when the cover slides