DECEMBER 1, 1913 



most promising innovations in bee culture. 

 It is tliis: Requeening ivithout dequeening. 

 I have been doing it for some time in cm 

 experimental way, ti-ying to find the basic 

 laws, for as yet I can not succeed every time. 

 I am not sure as to what conditions are 

 essential to uniform success, and hence have 

 hesitated to say much about it. But the 

 present seems to be an excellent time to 

 broach the subject. The eye of the bee- 

 keeping world is on the new method of intro- 

 ducing, and all its variations and possibil- 

 ities will be discussed and tried out, hence 

 ] believe it wise to mention what I have so 

 far done, even though the work is not com- 

 plete. 



In the past I have stated that it was pos- 

 sible to introduce a plurality of queens and 

 have them all accepted, but sooner or later 

 all but one disappear. Keeping a plural- 

 ity of queens in a colony has long been a 

 dream of many, as a way to have large colo- 

 nies. Its practicability or wisdom is not 

 now under consideration, but the subject is 

 cited merely to recall what has been at- 

 tempted, and show how very near to a new 

 thing some of the experimenters came. 



Permanent plurality of queens had prov- 

 ed impossible; but the fact that bees would 

 even for a time tolerate a plurality of queens 

 (not under supersedure conditions) sug- 

 gested to me the possibilitj^ that perhaps a 

 young queen might be given without remov- 

 ing the old one and have the former super- 

 sede the latter. It was easy to jjut in the 

 new queen, but it was not alwaj^s the new 

 one that sunived. 



Why? Frankly, I do not know. But if 

 it works properly in a few cases it will be 

 possible to make it work at our pleasure 

 when we learn the laws underlying their 

 behavior. 



At present my idea is this (and please 

 note that I am only stating it as a working- 

 hypothesis, that others may take up the 

 work with me) : A young queen light in 

 eggs easily overpowers an older queen heavy 

 with eggs. Also, such a young queen usu- 

 ally conquers an old and failing queen. If 

 such proves to be always true, we have only 

 to introduce an active queen light in eggs 

 to a colony when its queen is heavy with 

 eggs to have the desired sujDersedure take 

 place. 



Now, note this: A queen, once safely in 

 is safe until she meets the other queen. The 

 more nimble queen usually wins; but some- 

 times, when perhaps queens are about equal- 

 ly matched, the bees take a hand, and then 

 results are impossible of forecast, and ei- 

 ther queen maj' be the victim. 



The problem then is to ascertain the best 

 age and condition of the new queen, and the 



most favorable conditions in the receiving 

 colon}'. PerhaiDS some day we may find 

 requeening without dequeening simple at 

 any time; but just now the conditions above 

 set forth seem necessary, and even then the 

 results are not uniform. 

 Providence, R. I., Nov. 10. 



[Our correspondent may be on the right 

 track. We believe he is correct when he 

 says that " a queen light in eggs easily over- 

 l^owers an older queen heavy with eggs." 

 We have noticed this time and time again. 

 In the same way, an interloping virgin — 

 that is, one going into a hive by mistake, 

 where there is already a laying queen — will 

 in most cases supplant the reigning mother, 

 for the very reason that Mr. Miller states. 



We believe, also, he is right in saying that 

 " a queen once safely in is safe until she 

 meets the other queen." "\A'e have seen not 

 a, little corroborative evidence of this — so 

 much so that we have come to believe that, 

 when there are two queens in a hive, the 

 bees rarely take a hand in the fracas be- 

 tween the rivals. They allow the rule of the 

 survival of the fittest to work out, for " to 

 the victor belong the spoils." It is a well- 

 known fact in ajDiculture that two colonies 

 may be united, each having a queen, without 

 paying any attention to either queen unless 

 there is a choice; but a further examination 

 will show only one queen in the hive. It is 

 probable that the rivals " settle their differ- 

 ences " by one killing the other. A royal 

 combat between queens does not end like a 

 duel between two men, both being injured 

 or i^ossibly killed, but in the case of queen 

 bees it is simply a case of death to one 

 without injury to tlie other. 



We are glad that Mr. Miller has present- 

 ed the case, even though he is not at present 

 sure of his premises.- 



The following article touches on a phase 

 similar to the one just preceding. — Ed.] 



REOUEFNING WITHOUT KILLING THE OLD 

 QUEEN 



Two Queens in the Hive for the Fell Work 



BY J. B. MERWIN 



The requeening of our hives without kill- 

 ing the old queen is a method we have prac- 

 ticed in our yards for some time, and find it 

 superior in a good many ways to the old 

 style of requeening. In taking off our supers 

 or upper stories for the last time early in the 

 fall or late summer we often find a few 

 hives, which, for various reasons, we wish to 

 requeen. The queens in these hives may be 

 old ones, others may not be doing good 

 work, and some we wish to requeen for bet- 



