FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 237 



cellent qr.eens, and many of them, by the Alley plan, and 

 by the Doolittle cell-cup plan, together with its modifica- 

 tions by Pridgen and others. I think I was the first one 

 to report rearing a queen in a colony having a layings 

 queen ; and I have reared them in stories under as well as 

 over the story having the laying queen. Neither is it ab- 

 solutely necessary to have a queen-excluder between the 

 stories. In lieu of an excluder I have used a cloth with 



Fig. 80. — Cleafed Smoker. 



room for passage at the corners. Neither excluder nor 

 cloth is absolutely necessary: distance is enough. That 

 first reported case was on this wise : 



Upon a hive containing a colony had been piled four 

 stories of empty combs for safe keeping. To make sure 

 that the bees would not neglect the care of the most dis- 

 tant combs, I put a 'frame of brood in the upper story. 

 A few weeks later I found a laying queen in the upper 



