May 1, l!tl2 



MAKING UP WINTER LOSS 



Rearing Queens in Upper Stories by the Alexander 

 Plan 



BY G. J. YODER 



Since 1875 I had used the nucleus plan 

 for queen-rearing, generally having two 

 compartments for a queen in a hive; but 

 when the Alexander plan came out it was 

 so satisfactory that I abandoned the nu- 

 cleus plan. 



Several years ago we had a great si)ring 

 loss; but we rallied, and bought bees until we 

 had 60 colonies at the home yard. We had 

 150 sets of brood combs on h?nd, many of 

 which were full of honey; and as soon as a 

 colony was strong enough a full set of work- 

 er combs, partly filled with honey, was giv- 

 en, the queen having access to both stories. 

 This soon resulted in very strong colonies, 

 some of which were managed on the Alex- 

 ander plan for rearing queens; while in case 

 of the others the upper story was removed 

 about the time the colonies were preparing 

 to swarm — from one to three supers put on 

 with full sheets of foundation fastened at 

 the top and two sides, then a queen-exclud- 

 er, and finally the upper story on top of 

 that. This latter was left on until the bees 

 were nearly all hatched, and we found that 

 many of those having upper entrances, 

 made by leaving out a part of the cleat at 

 the back corner of the excluder, had ma- 

 tured queens. In the meantime, the bees 

 had been drawing out the foundation in the 

 supers below, and storing honey. At this 

 point we removed the upper story, contain- 

 ing the new queen, thus making a new col- 

 ony. Or the old queen was removed from 

 the brood-chamber below, and the young 

 queen reared in the upper story substituted, 

 and this upper story placed on some other 

 colony that had no supers. Years ago I 

 tried raising queens in upper stories but 

 failed. 



By the fall of 1906 we had 150 colonies in- 

 stead of the 60 we had started with in the 

 spring, and we had secured an average of 

 125 lbs. to the colony, spring count, about 

 half of which was extracted honey. We 

 also had 40 sets of worker comb all the way 

 from half full to full of honey. We uncap- 

 ped these a little more than half way up 

 from the bottom bar to the top bar, and ran 

 them through the extractor. We were thus 

 ready to make another trial the next year. 



In the spring of 1907 we had less of a loss; 

 but we soon put into operation the same 

 plan that gave such good results the year 

 before. We had more queens raised in up- 

 per stories than during the previous year, 

 and all those upper stories that we set on 

 new stands in the fore part of the season 

 worked in supers during the last flow. I 

 noticed in particular that the colony that 

 raised the first queen that I put down in 

 the lower brood-chamber gave 178 sections 

 of fine honey. 



I may be wrong; but I attribute the suc- 

 cess in rearing queens in upper stories by 



281 



this plan to the distance between the two 

 brood-chambers, and to the fact that the 

 colonies were so strong. Removing the up- 

 per stories before many sections were cap- 

 ped also had a good deal to do with it. I 

 prefer select cells built under the swarming 

 impulse, which are generally very plentiful, 

 and come at just the right time. 



Some are not successful with the Alexan- 

 der plan for rearing queens in upper stories; 

 but in this locality it certainly works fine- 

 ly, especially if there are plenty of brood 

 combs on hand. We went through these 

 two very profitable honey seasons without 

 a nucleus, and with much less work than 

 would have been required by the old way. 



Meridian, Idaho. 



[It will be seen that our correspondent 

 touches on the point brought out by Mr. 

 Townsend in another article in this issue; 

 that is, that bees rear queens more prompt- 

 ly in upper stories if these upper stories can 

 be separated some distance from the lower 

 stories, so that the brood is somewhat iso- 

 lated. The plan of rearing queens in upper 

 stories has much to commend it, and very 

 likely much of the trouble heretofore has 

 been caused by the upper story being too 

 close to the lower one — the one containing 

 the queen. — Ed.] 



PUTTING ON SUPERS 



Should the Empty Super be Placed Below or Above 

 the One Partly Filled? 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER 



When considering management of supers 

 it makes some difference whether we are 

 talking about section-supers or extracting- 

 supers. There are general principles that 

 apply alike to both kinds of supers. If a 

 super of either kind be put under full or 

 partly filled supers, the bees are likely to be- 

 gin work on it sooner than if the empty su- 

 per had been put on top. Also, the further 

 a super is above the brood-chamber, the less 

 danger there is of the bees carrying bits of 

 dark wax from the brood-combs to put on 

 the cappings in the super. It will be seen, 

 however, that, while these things are alike 

 true for both kinds of supers, they do not 

 make the same difference in one kind as in 

 the other. Generally an extracting-super is 

 filled with drawn-out combs that have been 

 used before; and if such a super be put on 

 top the bees will begin work in it much 

 more readily than they will in a super of 

 empty sections. The bees will darken the 

 cappings near the brood-chamber in either 

 kind of super; but dark cappings are very 

 objectionable in sections, and not at all ob- 

 jectionable in extracting-combs. So it will 

 be seen that Mr. K. D. Townsend, with his 

 extracting-supers, cares nothing about dark 

 cappings, and not so very much about hur- 

 rying up the bees at beginning work in the 

 new super. 



Yet, even with extracting-combs, the bees 

 will commence work at least a little sooner 



