1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



355 



friend J. A. Pearce, of Grand Rapids. Mich., 

 says in the April Review, 1905, on this sub- , 

 ject: "In regard to putting light swarms on 

 top of heavy ones in the spring, I believe it 

 is a great thing; in fact, I look upon it as 

 one of the best things brought to light in 

 modem bee-keepirg. Last spring I had 16 

 swarms marked heavy, and just 16 marked 

 light— in fact, so light that I almost despair- 

 ed of getting them up to the honey harvest 

 by any process; but when that article by 

 Mr. Alexander came out in the April Re- 

 view, telling us how to save weak colonies 

 by setting them on top of strong ones, I con- 

 cluded it would work, so I placed the whole 

 16 weak swarms on top of the 16 strong 

 ones. I examined them some three weeks 

 afterward, and such a change I never saw. 

 Those weak swarms had built up so they 

 were as strong as if not stronger than the ones 

 below, and had more honey because of the 

 tendency to store above. I could scarcely 

 believe that such results were possible. 

 Then, again, instead of detracting in any way 

 from the strong swarm below, it really seem- 

 to be the reverse, as though they had been 

 stimulated by it to greater activity. Hav- 

 ing the two queens depositing eggs instead 

 of only one, the bees went out with a rush 

 on all occasioT5S when they could get out. 

 It also proved another thing, which is that 

 the upper queen is all right, only she was 

 handicapped for want of bees and warmth; 

 and as soon as these conditions were supplied 

 she proved herself to be as prolific as her 

 sister below, instead of being the worthless 

 thing that she had been supposed to be." 



I think I have shown you how we can keep 

 our bees warm and comfortable through the 

 sudden changes of early spring; also how 

 we can stimulate them to early breeding by 

 keeping them warm and feeding a little thin 

 syrup every day. This is very important; 

 and how you may Fave those little weak col- 

 onies and have them ready for your early 

 harvest. 



Delanson, N. Y. 



[It should, perhaps, be stated at this time 

 that Mr. Alexander will illustrate and de- 

 scribe his special form of feeder in a future 

 article. For the present I will simply state 

 that the device in question is a Simplicity 

 trough feeder put under the bottom of the 

 hive, and flush with the back end, the bot- 

 tom board being shoved forward sufficiently 

 to accommodate it. 



I wish to draw attention particularly to 

 Mr. Alexander's method of uniting a weak 

 colony to a strong one, whereby both queens 

 are preserved and both do duty at once. In 

 the event that either queen is not quite up 

 to the standard, the two will more than 

 make up for the deficiency. That two 

 queens can do duty at once in one colony 

 after uniting, being separated by a perforat- 

 ed zinc, each in a separate brood-chamber, 

 would have been deemed some years ago im- 

 practicable; but if it be true that the bees 

 recognize their queens largely by colony 

 odor, then the two queens in the hive at the 



same time, so long as they can not get at 

 each other, will be tolerated by the bees be- 

 cause they smell alike. Queen- breeders have 

 been familiar with the fact that two queens 

 can be maintained in one hive, separated 

 from each other by perforated zinc. Occa- 

 sionally, however, the queens will fight 

 through one of the perforations, with the 

 result that one will be stung to death by her 

 opponent. In that case, possibly the bees 

 will take a hand in the fracas. But these 

 cases seem to be rare. 



When I visited Mr. Alexander last sum- 

 mer he showed me a hundred or so colonies 

 where he had two queens in at the same 

 time. At the time, he had an upper en- 

 trance so that the bees in the upper story 

 would not be compelled to go clear down 

 through the upper set of combs. He ex- 

 plained how it was possible, in connection 

 with his feeding, to get a large amount of 

 brood through the agency of two queens, 

 and yet none of that brood would suffer, as 

 would be the case where the weak colony 

 had to depend entirely on its own body heat 

 on its own stand. Yes, here was the evi- 

 dence or proof of the pudding, right before 

 my eyes It could not be gainsaid. 



We should be glad to have our readers test 

 this method of uniting, and report the re- 

 sults. The suggestion comes right in the 

 nick of time for most northern localities. 



Mr. Alexander does not say that the unit- 

 ing takes place shortly after or at the time 

 of taking the bees out of the cellar. If the 

 bees of the weak colony had been out for 

 two days, and had marked their location, 

 many of them would be lost in returning to 

 the old stand; but the fact that Mr. Alex- 

 ander speaks of the uniting taking place as 

 sooE as they have uncapped brood would in- 

 dicate that the bees had had a flight or two, 

 and that their weak condition had been dis- 

 covered after they had been set out. 



He will doubtless cover these points more 

 fully in a subsequent article; but for the 

 present, at least, I see no reason why a very 

 weak colony could not be united to a strong 

 one, putting perforated zinc between at the 

 time of taking them out of the cellar. As 

 we have tested this principle of dual queens 

 only in a queeh-rearing way in summer, 

 there may be some practical reason why 

 uniting bees just out of the cellar would not 

 work.— Ed.] 



HANDLING BEES IN A CAGE FOR EXHIBI- 

 TION PURPOSES. 



A Practical Method of Advertising Honey and 

 Establishing a Name. 



BY L. F. WAHL. 



From Oct. 19 to 28, 1905. I conducted a 

 demonstration of a swarm of bees in a wire- 

 cloth cage in the basement of one of the larg- 

 est department stores in Western New York. 

 This was. I believe, the first demonstration 

 of the kind ever held in a store, and the 



