MAY 1. 1915 



377 



THE ALEXANDER METHOD IN A CLOVER LOCATION; SOME FUR= 

 THER PARTICULARS AND A REPLY TO DR. MILLER 



BY lONA FOWLS 



In Stray Straws, April 1, 1915, Dr. C. C. 

 Miller seems surprised at ray statement that 

 the swarming tendency would very rapidly 

 develop into a mania if we put the queen- 

 less' colony right on top with nothing but 

 the honey-boai'd between; and he thinks Mr. 

 Alexander and himself would have discover- 

 ed it if that were true. He then asks, "What 

 can make the ditTerence? " Well, the dif- 

 ference is that Alexander's queenless colony 

 and our queenless colony are under quite 

 different conditions. He took bees that had 

 not beg-un swarming. Ours may be at quite 

 an advanced stage. 



Mr. Alexander's plan, according to his 

 own words, was to be put in operation 

 " when your colonies are nearly full enough 

 to swarm naturally." And later he says, " I 

 find that nearly all who have made a failure 

 of (he method have taken colonies that had 

 already made some preparation for swarm- 

 ing by having eggs or larvse in their queen- 

 cells." Now, our plan is applied at the 

 very stage that he considers liable to cause 

 failure under his method. In fact, we even 

 take bees that have capped queen-cells pres- 

 ent; and, please notice, we leave all the cells 

 except the capped ones. Moreover, his 

 queenless colony is left but five days, while 

 ours is left seven or eight. Therefore his 

 queen-cells would have lan^ae no more than 

 one or two days old, while oui-s might be 

 ready to hatch. And yet I notice that, in 

 dealing with these bees that have not even 

 begun raising cells, Mr. Alexander says, 

 " Leave them in this way five days, then . . 

 destroy any larvaj yon may find in the 

 queen-cells .... for they frequently start 

 the rearing of queens above the excluder. 

 If so, you had better separate them at 

 once." 



Why separate them "at once"? Because 

 he knew that some of the cell-builders, if 

 placed so close to the lower hive that only 

 a honey-board intervened, would very likely 

 pass through into the lower hive and also 

 start cells there, and thus the swarming idea 

 would become firmly fixed. Well, if he 



I'ecognized such a danger when cells w^ere 

 but five days old, how much safety would he 

 have felt with cells at all stages from one 

 to sixteen days old? 



Our idea is to get those cell-builders 

 further away from the queen, so that the 

 bees of the lower story will not begin rais- 

 ing cells; for our experience has been that, 

 with such advanced cells above, the lower 

 colony will very soon catch the swarming 

 fever unless the two stories are separated 

 by inserting supers; and the further the 

 brood is isolated from the queen, the more 

 queenless the bees of the upper story seem 

 to feel, and the less likely is it that the 

 presence of cells above will cause swarming 

 to be started below. Consequently we put 

 two or three supers between ; and we find, 

 so far as isolation is concerned, it has about 

 the same eifeet as moving the upper story 

 to a new stand. HoAvever, it is vastly better, 

 for we not only keep the bees at work, but 

 also save the larvae. 



Evidently, in the March 15th number I 

 did not make myself very clear, for I had 

 no idea of criticising the Alexander method. 

 If one desires increase, and has his bees all 

 in one apiary, as Alexander had, it would 

 probably be difificult to find a better plan 

 than his. But for the sake of those who 

 have several outyards, and also wish to keep 

 down the increase, I thought I would like to 

 clear up any points that might arise con- 

 cerning a plan that has proved so helpful 

 for us. 



Father could not remember where he first 

 obtained the idea of the plan. Imagine my 

 surprise this morning when I finally located 

 the suggestion in the first paragrajDh of an 

 article entitled, " Do Queen-cells above a 

 Comb-honey Super Bring on Swarming? " 

 by Dr. C. C. Miller, Aug. 15, 1911 ; and to 

 think that Dr. Miller is to blame for it ! 

 Well, never mind. The plan works out 

 beautifully, and we are just as much obliged 

 for it as though he had written it for our 

 special benefit. 



Oberlin, Ohio. 



NEW BRUNSWICK CONVENTION 



BY H. n. DUROST 



A meeting of the directoi-s of the New 

 Brunswick Beekeepers' Association at Fred- 

 ericton on March 9 was marked by a good 

 attendance, interest, and enthusiasm. A 



number of most important subjects, bear- 

 ing directly on the interests of those keep- 

 ing bees in the province, were dealt with in 

 a businesslike manner. 



