Here let me caution bee keepers never to attempt to introduce a queen into a full stock of bees, until she has begun to lay. A young queen, not fecundated, will be destroyed in nine cases out of ten, in spite of every precaution. Before introducing a queen, the old queen in the stock, if any exists, must be taken away. Make your search for her in the middle of the day, as at that time most of the workers are away. Use but very little smoke, and that only at the entrance, as the bees should remain spread over the combs as evenly as possible. If you use much smoke, they will rush to the bottom and the corners of the hive, and it is very likely the queen might seek a hiding-place with the others, where you could not find her. If not disturbed, the queen will be found in the comb among the bees. When ready to proceed, having smoked them lightly at the entrances, (a puff at each entrance is sufficient,) lift out the comb carefully, avoiding any jar, and look them over for the queen. It is said the Italian queens are more readily found than the natives, but I could never see any difference. Hold the frame up in front of your face, so as to have a good view, and look each comb over carefully, till you find the queen. When found remove her. Always return the combs so they will occupy the same position as before.
As soon as the queen is removed, and the bees are aware of their loss, they will usually commence to rear another queen from the worker eggs to take her place. To make a sure thing of it, they often start to produce a half dozen or more.
In six days after removing the queen, smoke the bees well, to get the combs as clear of them as possible. Do this in the middle of the day. When you have driven the most of the bees from the comb to the bottom and into the corners of the hive, lift out the combs, and look sharply for queen cells, (success depends on thorough work here.) With a sharp knife cut out and destroy every such cell that is finished or commenced. Don't leave any part of a queen cell in the hive, for the bees will not accept a strange queen if they have the means of raising one of their own. Having destroyed every queen cell, finished or unfinished, return the combs to the hive; but before putting the honey board over the brood section, cut a hole in it a little smaller than the top of a tumbler. Cover this hole with a light piece of board, simply laid on, (not nailed, for you will need to remove it without ajar.) Then put the honey board in its place over the brood section.
Let the hive remain until near sunset, for the bees to get quiet, and to learn that they are without a queen and without the means of rearing another. Just before sunset take the queen you propose to introduce, and with her a score or more of workers, and put them in a tumbler with a piece of wire cloth over the top to keep them in. (To get her from the miniature hive, where she was reared, to the tumbler, take it to a close room, before a window, so if she takes wing, she may alight there.) Go to the hive into which she is to be introduced, and remove the cap, avoiding any jar that may irritate the bees. Take off the board over the hole in the honey board and turn the tumbler containing the queen bottom up over it, keeping the wire cloth between the queen in the tumbler and the bees in the hive.
Replace the cap to the hive, and let the queen and her attendant bees remain in the tumbler, in communication with the bees in the hive through the wire cloth, until the next day, near sunset. Then take a teaspoonful of honey, go to the hive, and remove the cap, this time with the greatest possible care, as the slightest jar will endanger success. Raise the tumbler carefully from off the queen, and with the honey smear her completely over, then turn the wire cloth over carefully, and let the queen and her attendant bees down through the hole in the honey board, among the bees of the hive. Replace the cap as quietly as possible, and the work is done. In about one week examine the combs of this hive for eggs, and if they are found, you can consider your work crowned with success. If no eggs are discovered, you must go over the ground again. But be sure there are no eggs in the combs before you repeat the work.
This plan of introducing queens, is the most successful of any I have ever tested. It rarely fails. When a laying queen is removed from one of the miniature hives, the bees will usually rear queens from the eggs left when the queen is removed.
CHAPTER XIII.
SOURCES OF HONEY.
THE sources from which bees collect honey are various and almost innumerable. Almost every flower, tree, plant, shrub and vine, in field, forest, pasture and garden yield honey to some extent. White clover is, perhaps, the greatest source of honey in the New England and Middle States, it being found in a greater or less extent in almost every field and pasture. South and West there is, in many localities, a profusion of wild flowers, producing considerable quantities of honey. In some sections buckwheat affords a rich harvest. Basswood yields a very nice quality of honey, and in sections where it abounds, great quantities are collected from it. Fruit blossoms—apple, pear, peach and all the different varieties of plums, cherries, etc., are very important sources of honey.
Pollen is the first material gathered by the bees in early spring. Several varieties of alder, willow, red maple, etc., produce pollen in great abundance. Raspberry, blackberry, catnip, dandelion, etc., all contribute largely of honey in their season. Corn and most kinds of grain furnish pollen in abundance late in the season. Mustard and sweet clover are great favorites with the busy bee, yielding the most beautiful honey, clear as crystal and white as snow. The sugar maple produces honey of excellent quality, and where forests of this tree abound, large quantities of honey are stored, while it is in blossom in early spring.[8] Locust, whitewood, mignonette, golden rod, sumach, etc., all produce honey. When we take into consideration the fact that the bee will go seven miles or more to collect his sweets, it is easy to understand that a certain number of swarms will succeed in almost any locality even without feeding. To make this still more clear, we have only to take into account the vast number of honey yielding flowers, trees, plants, shrubs, etc., within a circle of fourteen miles in diameter, the hives occupying the centre, and the bees flying to collect honey seven miles in every direction from the hive. Those who have not tested the matter, will be likely to dispute the statement, that a bee will go seven miles to gather honey. But on this point I am able to offer ample proof, to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, the fact that the Italian bee will go that distance. The proof I offer is this: The first Italian bees brought into the New England States, I had the honor of receiving. The Italian bees being entirely distinct from the native or black bees in color or size, I determined to avail myself of the opportunity offered to satisfy myself on the long-disputed question—"How far will a bee go to collect honey?" I therefore made close and repeated examinations, at different times during the honey season, and it was no uncommon occurrence, to find the Italian workers seven miles from their hives. As there were no Italian bees except mine within hundreds of miles, I considered this positive proof that this variety will travel seven miles from its hive in its search for honey-producing flowers. As the native or black bee is, to some extent, found in all parts of the country, it is impossible to prove conclusively the distance they will go from the hive; yet my observations give very strong evidence that they journey five miles or more after honey.