.TANUAKY 1. 1915 



and threw the lever, switching all field bees 

 to their new hive, giving tliein the oiiscaret 

 as mentioned. Tiie other half raised a queen 

 of their own. Here Mr. Stapleton is cor- 

 roborated in his experience — brood suspen- 

 sion. The other lialf, with queen and field 

 bees only, cured by tlie cascarets. When 

 these two halves had built up, which they 



27 



did by feeding syrup, 1 united them again 

 and put on supers, two queens working 

 liere; and now they are hard at it, storing 

 in the supers. So we have nothing to dread 

 liere. Just pass this along to our bee- 

 friends, and they can try it out for them- 

 selves. It is worth the trying. 

 Seattle, Wash. 



THE ALEXANDER METHOD OF INCREASE 



UY J. G. BHOWN 



(Tlie MTiter of the following article was a beekeeper in Peiui.s.vlvania ; and after that he removed 

 to Colorado, where he spent eight years in the business. He is now with the A. I. Root Co. as assist- 

 ant apiarist in the A. I. Root Co.'s apiaries. — Ed.] 



I read with a great deal of interest Dn 

 Miller's reply to A. Swahn, Dec. 15, page 

 979. I wondered at the time if the doctor 

 had been educated for a lawyer, or how he 

 managed to get so much sarcasm into two 

 inoffensive-looking little questions as the 

 following: ''What successful man doubles 

 his white-clover crop by dividing his colo- 

 nies befoi'e the white-clover harvest?" 

 " What successful man (or unsuccessful) 

 increases his white-clover crop each year by 

 dividing his colonies before the white-clover 

 harvest? " 



In reply to the above I'd like to ask Dr. 

 Miller if he ever tried the Alexander method 

 of increase, using it just as Mr. Alexander 

 did, and leaving out nothing " because he 

 knew it wouldn't work." 



Mr. Alexander does not say that he gets 

 *• twice as much " honey when he divides as 

 when he doesn't, but "nearly twice as much." 

 Dr. Miller makes no room whatever for 

 poetic license. Mr. Alexander further says 

 that he has two good strong colonies in the 

 place of one to commence work on the clover 

 harvest. But he does not say they are of 

 equal strength, nor does he say they are " as 

 strong as " the one not divided. The fact 

 that he says they gather '* nearly twice as 

 much '' implies that he meant they were not 

 quite equal to one undivided at the begin- 

 ning of the season. Mr. Alexander doesn't 

 even saj^ he gets any more wiiite-dover 

 iioney, but that he has two good strong 

 colonies ready to go to work in place of one. 

 Mr. Alexander gives two illustrations, and 

 in each case he recites what was accom- 

 plished at the end of the season. 



As a further proof that Mr. Alexander 

 did not mean that the white-clover crop 

 would be doubled, he speaks of the new 

 colony on the old stand being '* in fine shape 

 for a super of sections," but he does not 

 say the other colony is in shape for a super 

 of sections. 



Mr. Alexander began by using what he 



called fairly strong colonies about April 15, 

 witli a queen not over ten months old, and 

 tliese he fed every day they couldn't get nee- 

 tar up to and after dividing them. One queen 

 was laying her best up to June 1, and after 

 that he had two queens laying. The first 

 colony contained all the field bees up to May 

 2G, and bad a hive nearly full of brood. The 

 second colony had the young and hatching 

 bees, and a young laying queen after about 

 June 1. The flow began about June 15, so 

 the second colony had bees old enough to go 

 to w'ork on clover. 



From this time on until the close of 

 buckwheat Mr. Alexander had two colonies 

 gathering honey in place of one. It must 

 be remembered that Mr. Alexander ran for 

 extracted honey, andT have no doubt he was 

 well provided with good brood-combs so 

 I hat each colony had a hive full of combs 

 at the outset. 



Dr. Miller in calling for examples, like 

 the angel at Sodom and GomoiTah, is will- 

 ing to be "Jewed down " a little. He asked 

 for two living examples of successful men 

 who doubled their white-clover honey by 

 dividing their bees, or two successful (or 

 unsuccessful) men who increased their 

 white-clover crop by dividing therr bees be- 

 fore the harvest. Some of us might get into 

 the discussion h\ way of the parenthesis. If 

 Dr. Miller will concede that white clover 

 isn't the only flow there is, perhaps some of 

 tlie beekeepers of the West who really keep 

 bees, and, in return, are kept by them, may 

 be able to break into the discussion. 



The Alexander method of increase, on the 

 whole, is all right and sound doctrine. That, 

 like all other met hods, will have to be ad- 

 justed to fit the locality where it is to be 

 used. This is not merely belief, but to me 

 personal knowledge. I used it in Colorado, 

 but fed outside instead of using individual 

 feeders. The result was, colonies were boil- 

 ing over with bees much earliei' than (he 

 apiaries where not so stimulated. Both 



