1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



157 



moving them from one queenless colony to 

 another until such time as I could get queens 

 for them. I let them requeen out of their 

 second batch of cells, and could not see but 

 they did as well as any colony in the yard. 

 After live weeks, two of the three supersed- 

 ing queens in one hive came up missing. I 

 think the reason the superseding queens do 

 not fight is because they have the same in- 

 stinct that the worker bees have; and when 

 they have been laying heavily for some time 

 they begin to feel their weakness, or want 

 help, or are expecting to meet another queen 

 at any time, any way. I also believe they 

 may be kept together only just so long as 

 they remain in this condition, and that, 

 when they have rested up and have regained 

 their normal strength, their jealousy will as- 

 sert itself, and that will be the end of the 

 plural-queen system. 

 Uvalde, Texas. 



THE PLURAL-QUEEN SYSTEM. 



How an Engrlish Expert Looks at the Ques- 

 tion ; the Advantages and 

 Disadvantages. 



BY JOSEPH GRAY, 



Traveling Expert in Apiculture, and County Council 

 Lecturer, 



I have read with deep interest Alexander's 

 new plural-queen system. We have in Eng- 

 land the Wells hive, which takes two colonies 

 side by side, divided by a central dummy 

 made of wood, and perforated to allow the 

 scent to pass freely to each stock. The bees 

 work to the center, forming one cluster. A 

 queen-excluder is used over the brood-nest, 

 and one common super is used. 



Advantages. — A mighty working force 

 which will roll in the nectar from the fields 

 and give a large surplus that no single colo- 

 ny will. 



Disadvantages. \. — A big unwieldy hive 

 not easy to handle. 



2. In winter the brood-nest is likely to sep- 

 arate and make two clusters, and one side is 

 likely to attract more bees during the early 

 spring flight, needing a more skillful manage- 

 ment to adjust matters. 



3. Often one queen turns up missing in 

 the spring examination, but you get a big col- 

 ony at the other end. 



In my travels I find these hives are gradu- 

 ally going out of favor on account of the dis- 

 advantage first named. 



Swarming.— ThevQ is less tendency to 

 swarm, the mighty force bending their ener- 

 gy to storing. 



Locality and season. — These are important 

 factors in the case. Given a locality and 

 season where there is a good flow, these colo- 

 nies do well; but in a locality with a slow flow 

 and changeable weather, the swarming may 

 be raging, and all stores consumed in exces- 

 sive breeding. 



Alexander s new method has two points of 

 interest to me. 



One brood-nest, without perforations or ex- 



cluder, where queens, two to five, can roam 

 at will. 



* The matter of swarm control alone is worth 

 all the experiments, and around it centers 

 the chief interest in the new method. 



There is one condition in which Mr. Alex- 

 ander stands ahead of most of us He has an 

 ideal locality, with a certain and steady hon- 

 ey-flow. Buckwheat may account largely for 

 his success where others will fail. 



If Mr. Alexander has given to the world 

 a system that even a limited number can 

 use, that will permit a plurality of queens in 

 a single brood-nest the year round, with com- 

 plete control of swarming, he has undoubt- 

 edly made an epoch in apiculture, and his 

 name will go down to posterity. 



Long Eaton, England. 



[Since the foregoing was received at this 

 ofhce Mr. Alexander has published a state- 

 ment to the efi'ect that the plural-queen sys- 

 tem, without the use of perforated zinc, has 

 not yet proven to be a success — see page 

 1496, Dec. 1st issue of last year. 



From the testimony that has come in, it 

 seems to be more and more clear that the 

 dual- queen system will not work unless the 

 queens are separated by excluders, and even 

 then only while the colony is in a prosperous 

 condition. 



The testimony offered by our correspon- 

 dent, that the Wells system in its modified 

 form embodies the principle of perforated 

 zinc, is interesting and valuable at this time. 

 But we have known how, sometimes, devices 

 and methods have been prematurely discard- 

 ed only to be readopted years afterward, 

 and finally put into successful use. The use 

 of self spacing attachments on brood-frames, 

 for example, was tried some twenty or thirty 

 years ago, and at that time they were gen- 

 erally discarded except by a few, but now 

 they are in general use. It is possibly true, 

 therefore, that the two-queen system in con- 

 nection with perforated zinc was discarded 

 in your country before it had had a fair test. 

 —Ed.] 



««t«« 



REQUEENING. 



Shall the Superseding he Done by the Bees 

 or by the Apiarist? Killing the Old 

 Queens only after the Young Queens are 

 Laying; some Experience in Queen-rear- 

 ing. 



BY F. GREINER. 



The bee-keepers we meet at conventions 

 are an enviable, happy lot of people. They 

 are generous; they give as freely as they par- 

 take. An enjoyable time is always assured, 

 even should but half a dozen convene. 



After having returned from the joint meet- 

 ing of the Ontario and Seneca County bee- 

 keepers, with a few visitors from Wyoming, 

 Livingston, Yates, Tompkins, and Monroe 

 Counties present, I am filled with greater 

 enthusiasm for the pursuit, and am better 

 fitted to cope with the ever changing prob- 



