770 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



nuclei, mate queens, supersede old queens 

 without removing the bee-escape; queen- 

 exclude, and other little tricks of the trade. 

 1 live in the city of Brooklyn, in the middle 

 of a solid block of brick buildings; yet I 

 have a fair-sized apiary in my back yard, 

 and sometimes on the roof. I need room, 

 and get up and down instead of sidewise; 

 but 1 hear no com])laints from my neigh- 

 hoi's about my bees being a nuisance. 



A QUEEN-REARING OUTFIT. 



The idea ot' my queen-rearing outfit is 

 old, yet the apidication is new. It can be 

 used in connection with any strong colony. 

 The cover described above is essential to 

 success. I believe the very best of queens 

 can be reared with this simple outfit if one 

 understands the conditions under wliieh 

 yood queens can be reared. 



Brooklyn, iN^. Y. 



KEEP THE QUEENS APART 



BY W. T. CART 



T tried the Alexander method years ago 

 when it was being generally described in 

 the journals, and 1 think I thrashed out tlie 

 principles involved pretty well from all 

 sides to my satisfaction until I made a suc- 

 cess of it with a little modification. The 

 modifications, I think, were suggested from 

 articles I read in Gleanings. 



'I'here are a number of reasons for losing- 

 queens; but the principal one seems to be 

 the disposition of the bees. I had some 

 tine gentle Italians, and some blacks and 

 some hybrids, and I found a great deal of 

 difference. I am satisfied that, if my bees 

 had been all gentle Italians, like Alexan- 

 der's, T should not have needed any modifi- 

 cations. 



Use two queen-exeluders instead of one, 

 Avith a bee-space between them. If you 

 have the Avood-zine or wood-and-wire ex- 

 cluder, simply lay one on top of the other. 

 Ti\en provide an independent entrance at 

 the back end for the weak colony. The 

 object of the double queen-excluder is to 

 prevent the queens from getting their heads 

 together and quarreling. If the queens get 

 to quarreling the bees will surely take it up, 

 and a fighting force will go up from below. 

 The object of the back entrance is to en- 

 able the fielders from the weak colony to 

 get out without going through the strong 

 colony below where they might get killed 

 and cause a general commotion. 



If these manipulations are made at a 

 time when the bees are in a good humor, 

 and all quietly arranged, there will be very 

 little danger, according to my experience. 

 Why? Because the danger resides in the 

 rjueens themselves or in the fielders, which 

 every beeman knows is the fighting force. 

 The queens cannot get close enough to 

 quarrel, so the fielders in the weak colony 

 will be afraid to go below when they can 

 avoid it, and the fielders below will have no 

 incentive to go above, as they do no lionse- 



work, and their business leads them the 

 other way and to the fields. 



Scarcely a bee will pass through the 

 excluders except a lot of 3'oung greenhorns 

 that do not know any better than to wander 

 about and take up with any queen or work- 

 ing force that comes handy. Such will be 

 more than welcomed and coddled by the 

 weak colon}' until they have a strong force 

 that will fight for their adopted mother. 



Wakenda, Mo. 



BEES THAT PAID THE TAXES ON 

 THE FARM 



liY J. C. DOAVNEY 



The picture shows my apiary in winter 

 quarters. Thvee years ago 9 colonies of 

 this apiary produced enough honey to pay 

 the taxes on my 120-aere farm, which is 

 worth $150 per acre. In 1914 the 19 colo- 



nies produced just two pounds, or really 

 one of the 19 did. We had two extremely 

 drv summers in snccession here — 1018 and 

 lin4. 

 Jersevville. 111., Feb. 8. 



