I04 



April. 1908. 



in-Ns^^-€^ ^ 



American l^ee Journal 



terms for membership tliat it surely 

 deserves, as it probably enjoys, a flour- 

 ishing membership. The annual pay- 

 ment of $1.25 not only secures member- 

 ship in the State society, but in the 

 National as well, and also in the Min- 

 nesota State Horiticultural Society. 



A circular of the Minnesota State So- 

 ciety says : 



'"From the Horticultural Society we 

 get literature in pamphlet form every 

 month, and at the end of the year the 

 same in book form, and our programs 

 and convention reports printed with 

 theirs; also two plant premiums, if the 

 Secretary is notified before April 1st." 



The membership fee may be sent to 

 the president, Scott 'Lament, Jarrets, 

 Mirin., or to the secretary. Rev. Chas. 

 D. Blaker, Sta. F., Minneapolis, Minn. 



Florence Makes and Paints Hives 



I am sending you a picture of my 

 ig-frame hive with 3 supers standing on 



Florence Bellamy. 



edge on top of it. Each super holds 65 

 sections, or 195 for the 3; 170 being 

 filled with honey and sealed over, and 

 7 filled on one side and half filled on 

 the other side. 



I am enclosing also a picture of my 

 12-year-old son, "Jimmie," with a hive 

 that he made himself ; and another of 

 my ii-year-old daughter, '"Florence," 

 with a hive that she made and was paint- 

 ing when the picture was taken. 



Syracuse, N. Y. H. F. Bellamy. 



[The picture in which "Jimmie" ap- 

 peared, and also the one .showing the 

 19-franie hive, were too dim to en- 

 grave. — Editor.] 



The Plural Queen System 



The spring of 1907 was, in this local- 

 ity, the worst I ever knew. Feeding, 

 uniting, and all other methods I knew 

 of for obtaining strong colonies fell far 

 short of the desired results. Rev. 

 Langstroth said, "Keep all colonies 



.strong." That is good advice, especial- 

 ly so where one is rearing queens, be- 

 cause weak colonies mean weak queens. 

 After all methods that I knew of had 

 failed to give me colonies of the de- 

 sired strength, I began experimenting 

 on the plural-queen system. The result 

 of my efforts is shown in the cut. There 

 is nothing new or original in my meth- 

 od; it is simply a combination of others 



hole in the Chambers device. Now re- 

 move the queen from the cage, shake 

 the bees down in the box and drop in 

 the queen. Then put into the empty 

 body over the strong colony a frame 

 of hatching brood, and 2 of honey. 



Take the box of bees that now con- 

 tains the queen, and dutnp them into 

 the prepared body, and put on the cover. 

 Keep adding hatching brood till the body 



Batch of Queen-Cells from Plural-Queen Colony. 



which I have learned from the pages of 

 bee-papers. 



I first select the strongest colony on 

 hand ; then the weakest one. I find and 

 cage the queen of the weak colony, then 

 after forcing the bees to fill themselves 

 with honey, they are shaken into a box 

 that has the two sides covered with 

 wire-cloth. The box containing the 

 bees is now placed in the shop. Now 

 take the brood from the weak cofony 

 to the strong one, remove all frames 

 from the strong colony that do not con- 

 tain brood, and place the brood from 

 the weak colony in their place. The hive 

 is now closed and left so until even- 



is full. When the bees become acquaint- 

 ed I remove the Chambers device and 

 substitute a queen-excluder. When the 

 colony reaches the desired strength I 

 put the Chambers device on, then an 

 empty body. In the added body put 3 

 frames of brood, and a Doolittle feed- 

 er, close the flight-hole, and draw the 

 slides, and feed a little warm feed, 

 which will draw the young bees up. 

 In about 3 days close the slides, cut all 

 cells that have been started and insert 

 a frame with prepared cells. 



When the photo was taken, the 6- 

 story colony contained 5 queens. The 

 other small picture shows the result 



Apiary of J. l)r)n;il(lscin and Plural-Queen Colony. 



ing, when the cover is removed and a 

 Chambers cell-device (as described by 

 J. E. Chambers, in Gleanings), and an 

 empty body placed over the brood-cham- 

 ber; close the slides, and open the flight- 



of their work as cell-builders. You 

 will notice the cells are attached to the 

 bottom of a brood-comb instead of a 

 stick. I got that idea from Mr. Doo- 

 little at the Jenkintown Field Day. A 



