. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 163 It may be safely inferred that when a queen takes flight under any circumstances (except on swarming) she will always return to the spot from which she started, and will alight th-;re if per- mitted to do so. We lost one a very short time ago under simi- lar circumstances to those described by our correspondent, but her return was prevented by her becoming entangled in a large spiders web. Some bees found her in her singular posi- tion, and encased her, and when we discovered her she was dead. We mention this,
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. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 163 It may be safely inferred that when a queen takes flight under any circumstances (except on swarming) she will always return to the spot from which she started, and will alight th-;re if per- mitted to do so. We lost one a very short time ago under simi- lar circumstances to those described by our correspondent, but her return was prevented by her becoming entangled in a large spiders web. Some bees found her in her singular posi- tion, and encased her, and when we discovered her she was dead. We mention this, as it may aid in explaining ^'hy young queens are so often lost on their wedding flights. Ed. ON UNITING QUEENS. Dear Sir, —In a correspondence with the late Mr. Woodbury shortly before his decease, I liad occasion to ask his advice as to the best method of uniting Itahan queens to common stocks in the ordinary cot- tage or fixed comb hive. He recommended driving, but as I had never suc- ceeded in performing the operation to my own satis- faction, I hesitated to adopt this plan on so large a scale as the introduction of six imported queens required. To my enquiries as to his experience with regard to fumigation, he (Mr. Woodbury) replied that he had no knowledge of it, nor did he know any case in which it had been tried. Having a sufficient stock of well- dried puff-ball, collected from the meadows the pre- vious year, I determined to experiment on three com- mon straw skeps and three Stewarton Hives. The queens ariived on the ^th November, 1870, frost having set in. Removing each hive into a warm room, I placed an empty Stewarton box reversed, under the boxes containing the bees, and when the hum proclaimed the excitement of the colony, by means of one of Mr. Neighbour's fumigators, fixed on bellows, I injected sufficient smoke from the ignited puff-ball to stupify the bees, tapping the hives during the operation, until perfect silence reigned within. The manipulation of eac