658 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



the spring. Not knowing any thing about 

 the age of the queen in the twelve-frame 

 hive, and the eight-frame one having cast a 

 swarm last season, it will contain a young 

 queen; and the fact that she filled an eight- 

 frame brood- chamber last fall proves her to 

 bfe a good one. I will take my chances on 

 the eight-frame hives. Of course, the 

 eight-frame hive should be expanded to the 

 full capacity of the queen during the breed- 

 ing season. The chances are two to one in 

 favor of the young queen. It is the queen 

 and not the hive that does the business at 

 this end of the season. There are times 

 when an eight- frame hive is too large, and 

 there are times when a twelve- frame hive 

 is too small; but who wants to carry a barn 

 around during the whole year for the sake 

 of using it a few days during the breeding 

 SG£ison? 



The keynote of successful modem apicul- 

 ture is expansion and contraction by means 

 of shallow sectional hives, and the handling 

 of hives instead of frames. The bee-keeper 

 who handles frames is wasting time that 

 could be put to better use. He is on a par 

 with the farmer who would cut his hay with 

 a scythe or his grain with a cradle. There 

 is a better way. 



Birmingham, 0., March 26. 



[Strong arguments can be advanced on 

 either side of this subject of large and small 

 hives. In some locaHties, and perhaps with 

 some bee-keepers, it is far better to let the 

 bees swarm once; but I can not help feeling 

 that, with the average bee-keeper and the. 

 average locality, it would be very desirable 

 if this swarming propensity could be held in 



Is it not possible, Mr. Hand, that some of 

 the methods for the prevention of swarming 

 virtually contemplate some plan of artificial 

 swarming that brings about the same active 

 energy that is so noticeable after a case of 

 natural swarming? Several of the shook- 

 swarming plans are really methods of arti- 

 ficial swarming; that is, the natural bent of 

 the bees for a new home and more room has 

 been satisfied. How do they know butj;hat 

 they have actually swarmed? '^J^^ 



The J. E. Chambers plan, described on p. 

 582, May 1st issue, virtually brings about a 

 condition that is almost analogous to that 

 surrounding the colony that has just swarm- 

 ed in the natural way. The same may be 

 said of the Doolittle method described on p. 

 598 and in this issue. Possibly you may ar- 

 gue that no artificial method can approach 

 or compare in actual results with the nat- 

 ural method. This may be true. 



Personally I have always had a strong 

 leaning toward a large hive; and I have also 

 had a leaning toward a divisible hive and 

 shallow frames. These two ideas may seem 

 somewhat antagonistic; but the divisible 

 brood-chambers allow of. a gradual expan- 

 sion to a large hive if needed, while a twelve- 

 frame hive or a Jumbo ten frame requires 

 an expansion in big jumps, so to speak. It 

 is true that division-boards can be used; but 



this brings about a contraction that is not 

 as perfect as a horizontal expansion with 

 shallow brood- chambers. 



On the other hand, it may be stated that 

 shallow frames chop up the brood- nest into 

 a multiplicity of small patches of brood; 

 and I have had a fear that the bees will be 

 more contented on large patches and fewer 

 of them; and if that be true, Mr. Holter- 

 mann, the Dadants, and all their following 

 would have quite an advantage over the 

 other crowd favoring a divisible hive. It 

 must not be forgotton that the Dadants 

 have been producers of enormous crops of 

 honey, and that, too, with a percentage of 

 scarcely one or two per cent of swarming in 

 the whole yard. 



This is a fruitful and interesting theme 



for discussion, and we invite Mr. C. P. Da- 



dant. as well as others, to take a Hand in 



it. Yes, Handle it without fear or favor. — 



Ed.] 



»»»■«■ • ■ ■ 



UNITING WEAK COLONIES BY THE ALEX- 

 ANDER METHOD. 



BY A. A. CLARK. 



After reading Mr. Alexander's article in 

 Gleanings, page 354, I decided to try it. 

 This spring, when I removed my bees from 

 the cellar, and after all had several good 

 flights, I examined each one. All had their 

 queens. Five I found that were weak in 

 bees and short of stores. These were fed a 

 cake of the Good candy, and closed on three 

 frames with a division-board. Having a 

 cold spell for a few days the bees were un- 

 able to fly; but on the first warm day these 

 five colonies were pounced upon by the other 

 strong colonies and their food all stolen. In 

 the evening I carried each of the weaklings 

 into the cellar, gave each a Doolittle feeder- 

 f ul of syrup, and left them in the cellar two 

 days. The third day, being warm, 1 car- 

 ried them out and examined them. Each 

 one had uncapped brood and eggs with the 

 syrup nicely stored around it. Then I decid- 

 ed it would be a good time to unite as per 

 Mr. Alexander's directions. I selected five 

 strong colonies, put on the excluder, then the 

 weak colonies, in each a feeder with some 

 syrup, and gave the lower colony one also. 

 To each I gave a little smoke to prevent 

 fighting; then in a little while I blew some 

 in at the entrance. All seemed to agree, as 

 there were no dead bees carried out. Next 

 day was cold, and bees did not fly. In a 

 few days they had good weather, and all 

 were getting pollen from soft maple and 

 willows. I did not disturb these weak colo- 

 nies until the 19th, when I thought perhaps 

 they might need some more syrup. This is 

 how I found them : In No. 1 a few scattering 

 bees, feed all gone; took out all combs; 

 three had brood in all stages. Just as the 

 last frame was lifted out I found the queen 

 and a small ball of bees on the excluder 

 dead. No. 2, bees all below; queen with 

 part of one leg chewed off. No. 3 were all 

 right, with a queen and a small cluster of 

 bees; brood in all stages; not quite so many 



