MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 181smoke—because such smoke is safe— is blown in and the entranceclosed. It should be explained that there is a seven-eighthsinchspace below the frames, so that the smoke blown in at theentrance readily spreads and penetrates to all parts of the hive.In from IS to 20 seconds that colony will be roaring. The smallspace at the entrance is now opened; the queen is run in, followedby a gentle puff of smoke, and the space again closed and leftclosed for about ten minutes, when it is reopened and the beesare allowed to ventilate and to quiet down. The full entrance isnot given for an hour or more or even until next day.''Q. What is the Sibbald quick method of introducing queens?A. Hunt the queen out that is to be removed and put her in awire cage on top of the frames. Then the queen that is to be introducedis laid on top of the same frames, too, and left till evening.Now remove the old queen and put the new queen in thecage from which the old queen has just been taken, and over theend of the opening fasten a piece of comb foundation. Place onthe frames again, after punching a few small holes with a pinthrough the- foundation and let the bees release the queen. SometimesMr. Sibbald rubs the dead body of the old queen, that hasjust been killed, over the outside of the cage she has just comeout of.Q. How soon after introducing a queen is it safe to open thehive to see if she is all right?A, It is a little safer not to disturb the colony for three orfour days.Queens, Keeping. — Q. The bees will take care of their ownqueen in a cage. But if she is caged and put in another colonyabove the excluder, will those strange bees take care of her?A. Generally there will be some bees so good-natured as tofeed a strange queen; but it is safer to have the cage provisioned,and then the queen can feed herself.Q.' I have always been puzzled how to keep a lot of queenswhen not having immediate use for them. You stated once aboutthe maximum length of time one could keep queens in cageswithout danger to their laying powers. I suppose while so cagedthey do not lay any eggs. But even the interruption in layingwhile queens are in the mails is said to be harmful.A. In the case you speak of, the queens were kept in smallcages in a small colony. This was in the spring when there wasno heavy laying yet, and I doubt if the queens were at all injuredby being kept from laying. My guess would be that aqueen, or a number of queens, might be thus kept safely for a