152 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



started, but, when well to going, damp 

 fuel is really an improvement. It does 

 not blaze, it gives more smoke, and it 

 lasts 1 >nger. Tr3^ it. 



■M'^^tfP^^U^ 



Oasollne Cans are sometimes used for 

 the storing of honey, but they must 

 be thoroughly cleaned, and a sub- 

 scriber would like to know how best to 

 do this cleaning. If any one has had 

 experience, let him speak. 



The National Bee-keepers' Association 

 will hold its annual convention, for 

 1906, November 8, 9 and 10, in San 

 Antonio, Texas; these dates occurring 

 at the time when the Texas Fair is in 

 progress and low rates will be in force, 

 locally, for several hundreds of miles 

 out of San Antonio, and, at the same 

 time, there will be Home-Seekers' rates 

 available from other parts of the 

 country. 



INCREASE. 



How to Make it on the Alexander Plan. 



It is not every bee-keeper who wishes 

 increase; but some do. Where a mod- 

 erate increase is desired, together with 

 a fair crop of honey, a division of the 

 strongest colonies is probably as satis- 

 factory as any. The methods of doing 

 this are almost without number, but I 

 think there are few that are superior 

 to what is called the Alexander plan, 

 described by E. W. Alexander, in 

 Gleanings. Here is the plan: — 



After studying this subject for many 

 years, and trying everything I could 

 think of to prevent this loss of brood in 

 in making our increase, and at the 

 same time avoid nuclei, thus keeping 

 every colony in good condition to take 

 advantage of any unexpected harvest 

 that might come, I hit on what I con- 

 sider the most practical way of making 

 increase of anything I have ever tried 

 or heard of. It is this: When your 

 colonies are nearly full enough to 

 swarm naturally, then begin this man- 

 agement: lift a hive from its stand and 

 put in its place a hive containing 

 frames of combs or foundation, tl.e 

 same as you would put a swarm in, 

 providing it had just swarmed. Now 

 remove the center comb from your 

 empty hive, and put in its place a 

 fr;inie of brood from the center of your 

 full colony, and be sure you tintl the 

 queen and put her on this frame of 



brood in the new hive. Look this 

 frame of l)rood over to see that there 

 are no queen cells on it. If it does 

 contain any cut them ofP or destroy 

 them. Now put a queen excluding zinc 

 on top of this new hive that contains 

 the queen and frame the brood with 

 their empty combs, then set your full 

 queenless colony on top of the queen 

 excluder on this new hive, put in the 

 empty frame of comb or frame of 

 foundation where you took out the 

 frame of brood and close the upper 

 hive. The bees will now have to go 

 down through the queen excluder to 

 get out. Leave them this way for 

 about fi\e days, then look over the 

 combs carefully to see if anj' queen 

 cells are started and destroy them, 

 unless they are of agood strain of bees 

 that you wish to breed from. In that 

 case let them complete them. On the 

 10th or 11th day take off this upper 

 hive and place it on a new stand giving 

 it one of the mature cells. During 

 these ten or eleven days, the queen be- 

 low will get a fine lot of brood started 

 in the lower hive, and every egg and 

 particle of larvae that was in the old 

 hive on top will have matured, so it 

 will be capped over and saved It will 

 be full of young bees mostly and cap- 

 ped brood and can be left with a 

 capped cell or given a laying qmeen. 

 In this way j'ou have two strong col- 

 onies from one, as you have not lost a 

 particle of brood nor checked the lay- 

 ing of your qeuen. With me it entirely 

 prevents swarming. 



This is the way I have made my in- 

 creasese for several 3'ears, and like it 

 much better than any other way I have 

 tried. In doing so, you keep eill your 



