_Monroe, Iowa._
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Introduction of Unimpregnated Queens.
That the introduction of unfecundated queens should be so often spoken
of, and that too by some of our experienced bee-keepers, as a matter of
much difficulty, is a question to me almost incomprehensible. In the
hands of the inexperienced, or of those ignorant of the first principles
of success, a few failures ought not to be wondered at. But for those
having a knowledge of the prerequisites for the acceptance of a stranger
queen by a colony of bees, to talk of the safe introduction of
unimpregnated queens, as an act of uncertainty, induces me to believe
that they have either not experimented at all on this part of practical
bee-culture, or else did so to little profit.
If it be true, as has been asserted time and again in the BEE JOURNAL,
that the only means the bees have of recognizing strangers, is by the
sense of smell, it stands to reason that, if a stranger queen be
confined in a hive long enough to acquire the scent of the hive, the
bees will immediately accept her as their own, especially if they have
no young queens in process of rearing.
Acting upon this principle the past summer, I confined my young queens
in small wire cages, and inserted them as near as I could in the centre
of the hive; at the same time taking the precaution to provide them with
food during their confinement. The result was that out of a goodly
number of unimpregnated queens, introduced in swarming time, not one was
lost. We have also succeeded admirably in introducing them, by scenting
both queen and bees with some liquid having a peculiar scent. By either
method, we regard the safe introduction of a queen bee, whether fertile
or not, as a matter of certainty: where the queens themselves are kept
from starving by proper feeding.
We permitted natural swarming to some extent this summer, in order to
get hardy and prolific queens. As we will break up a number of
after-swarms this fall, which were unfortunate in coming late, we shall
be able to furnish some who prefer tested queens to all others, with a
number of finely colored queens raised in natural swarms, cheap for
cash.