1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



411 



tion can be made a succ^ess in all locations, 

 then Mr. Alexander will have to give us 

 more details to go by, as I am almost con- 

 vinced that, to make a success of it, there 

 are yet some few points where we are in the 

 darli. 



Penfield, Mich., Dec. 7. 



ALEXANDER S PLAN OF BUILDING UP WEAK 

 COLONIES A SUCCESS. 



Gleanings, in the past year, has given 

 its readers a most excellent bill of fare, es- 

 pecially in the very valuable articles ema- 

 nating from the pen of Mr. E. W. Alexan- 

 der and a few othei's. I tried his plan last 

 spring, of building up weak colonies by 

 placing them on top of strong ones. I had 

 three stocks that had become very weak 

 from spring dwindling; and when I noticed 

 it in the fore part of May I put them on 

 strong colonies adjoining, placing two per- 

 forated queen excluders with bee-space be- 

 tween them, between the hives, so as to keep 

 the queens apart. This was done quietly, 

 without any jarring. These wei'e examined 

 once a week to see how they progressed. In 

 about four weeks two of them were taken 

 down. All four being strong in bees and 

 brood they were given surplus cases. The 

 third one was left on a week longer, it being 

 very weak when placed on top, not having 

 more than half a pint of bees, and ab(mt six 

 or eight square inches of capped brood. 

 This colony would have dwindled right 

 away, and the other two would have taken 

 all summer to build up had I not placed 

 them on the strong colonies. My bees were 

 not wintered in the cellai", but on summer 

 stands, as per illustration in Gleanings 

 about two years ago. I believe that this 

 method of building up weak colonies will 

 work all right at any time when honey 

 is coming in. or by judicious feeding when 

 nothing is being gathered away from the 

 hive, W. H. Kikby. 



Oshawa, Out., Jan. 1, 1907 



ALEXANDER METHOD OF BUILDING UP WEAK 



colonies not successful in NEBRASKA; 



NEVER PAYS TO KEEP OLD QUEENS. 



I was much interested in the Alexander 

 method of building up weak colonies, as we 

 bee-keepers all have more or less weak colo- 

 nies in the spring. Last winter I wintered 

 several late swarms without extra feed; and 

 as they had young queens I wanted to save 

 them; so I put queen-excluders on a few ex- 

 tra strong colonies, and put weak ones on top. 

 Next morning bees were carrying out dead 

 bees; and upon examining the weak colonies 

 I found every (jueen dead, and bees and hon- 

 ey all gone: so I begin to think it is in the 

 location that the Nebraska bees are moi'e 

 strenuous than New York or Eastern bees; 

 and if Mr. Alexander will bring out a light 

 or medium colony of his bees ami put them 

 over a strong colony of Nebraska bees they 

 will kill his queen jiist as soon as they can 

 get at her. I then tried putting wire cloth 



over strong colonies; but it left so much ven- 

 tilation for both colonies that neither of them 

 did as well as when left separate with a quilt 

 on top to keep them wai'm, and a feeder on 

 the side. Some of these light colonies with 

 young queens built themselves up and made 

 more s\irplus honey than the strong colonies 

 with old queens. It does not pay to keep 

 queens over three years old, no matter how 

 good they may have been the first year, or 

 at least that has been my experience. 

 IVliller, Neb. T. J. Quail. 



UNITING A WEAK COLONY OVER A STRONG 



ONE; WHY SOME FAIL WITH THE 



ALEXANDER PLAN. 



A good many have had trouble in follow- 

 ing the Alexander plan of building up weak 

 colonies. I think the trouble in many cases 

 is due to rousing up the bees and getting 

 them uneasy before the weak colony is put 

 over the strong one. Then the two colonies 

 have a war for a while. I always use wire 

 cloth between the two hives and never have 

 any trouble from the lower colony going up 

 and killing the bees in the upper hive. For 

 some time I have wintered my weak colo- 

 nies this way, on the i^ummer stands. Last 

 winter I had several weak colonies, and I 

 put them all over strong colonies, making an 

 entrance in the back with my knife through 

 the hand-hole of the upper hive. This should 

 be just large enough to allow two or three 

 bees to pass out at a time. This is done on 

 some cloudy day after very cold weather 

 comes and the bees have quit fiying. 



Last year I had a weak swarm of bees. 

 There was just one frame of bees and a 

 young queen. I put this frame of bees in 

 with nine frames of honey, and put the 

 frames in a hive and set on top of one of 

 the strongest colonies I had, and in Febru- 

 ary they got pretty strong, and I left them 

 on till April; and when I set them off I had 

 two strong colonies. 



Milan, 111. Josiah Johnston. 



[We have received quite a number of re- 

 ports on the Alexander plan of uniting a 

 weak colony with a strong one. Most of 

 them have been very favorable and a few 

 unfavorable. The foregoing are fair sam- 

 ples. When successful, gx'eat results are se- 

 cured . 



When it is understood that we ourselves 

 failed with this method, and afterward suc- 

 ceeded, there is hope for others who have 

 failed. What, then, are the important req- 

 uisites? The most important one is putting 

 the weak on top of the strong ivith as little 

 (li.!<turl)ance as jiossiblc, with little or no 

 smoke. In Mr. Alexander's second article, 

 page 1358, Nov. 1, last year, he places very 

 strong emphasis on this, even to the extent 

 of repeating himself. He even goes further 

 and leaves the cover otf the strong colony, 

 in some cases, until the cool air forces the 

 bees down. Then he puts on top the perfo- 

 I'ated zinc and the weak colony. 



He also stipulates, as important in the 



