694 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



brood can be crowded into the lower story, 

 and combs of honey placed in the upper one 

 and set on weaker colonies run for extracted 

 honey, while comb-honey supers are set on 

 the colonies in their place. I do not like this 

 method very well, and it necessitates a great 

 deal of handling of combs. 



If increase is wanted, it can be obtained 

 nicely, especially if the swarming season 

 comes some time before the main flow. About 

 ten days before you want to make the divi- 

 sion, place a queen-excluder between the two 

 stories. At the end of that time take one of 

 the stories (which has not the queen) to a 

 new stand, and give a laying queen or a ripe 

 ' cell. This will leave the main force on the 

 old stand to begin work in the comb-honey 

 supers put on in place of the upper story 

 just removed. If the division is made earlier, 

 long enough before the honey-flow so that 

 both parts of the division can be built up for 

 it, there should be at least two-thirds of the 

 brood in the story moved to the new stand. 

 A laying queen is to be preferred to giving a 

 cell in this case, as the work goes on much 

 faster; hence laying queens should be pro- 

 vided for in advance. 



QUEEN-REARING. 



Some Questions Answered Concerning the 



Age of^Drones; the Two-queen System 



and Other Matters. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER 



Referring to my article on page 573, last 

 year, on rearing queens for early increase, 

 Mr. G. H. Smith, of Australia, has asked me 

 several questions by letter, and it may be 

 that my answers will be interesting to the 

 readers of Gleanings. He wishes to know 

 if it is not necessary for the drone to be much 

 older than the queen in order that she may 

 become fertilized at the proper age. He also 

 thought that, in so large an apiary as ours, 

 natural swarming must be a serious obstacle 

 in securing a large surplus; and as for two 

 or more queens to be loose in one colony, he 

 was of the opinion that it would cause the 

 colony to swarm as soon as the bees realized 

 the presence of more than one queen. 



In reference to the age of the drones, I will 

 say that, in natural swarming, we usually 

 find the drone comb of a hive well filled with 

 brood capped, or about ready to cap, when 

 the eggs are laid in the queen-cells. This 

 would show that in nature the greater number 

 of drones would hatch about the same time 

 as the young queens or a few days sooner. 



For our early queens, then, we use eggs from 

 our breeding-queen as soon as we find drone 

 brood capped. 



As to the number of our natural swarms, 

 that depends much on the season, also on the 

 length of time from one extracting to anoth- 

 er. In our apiary about six per cent of the 

 colonies cast natural swarms. 



In regard to keeping two or more laying 

 queens in a colony at the same time, and its 

 effect on their swarming, according to our 

 experience so far, it has wholly prevented it, 

 as we have never yet had a colony attempt 

 to swarm that contained two or more laying 

 queens where each had free access to all 

 parts of the hive. 



We are now wintering a colony with seven 

 two-year-old queens in it, all loose in the 

 cluster of bees. We saw and counted the 

 queens a few days before putting our bees in 

 the cellar; and vip to date, Jan. 30, we have 

 not found any dead queens under the cluster 

 of that colony. The hive is well marked, 

 and I will let you all know its condition next 

 spring and summer. 



I expect to test this subject thoroughly and 

 on a large scale another year. 



In a short time I will give the readers of 

 Gleanings our experience in keeping from 

 two to fifteen laying queens all loose, and 

 laying in one colony, without any restriction 

 of queen-excluders whatever, each one having 

 free access to any part of the hive and to 

 each other. 



Delanson, N. Y. 



[We already have the statement from Mr. 

 E. E. Pressler and Mr. J. A. Green that they 

 have worked successfully with the plurality- 

 queen scheme in one colony, without the use 

 of perforated zinc, so our correspondent is 

 beginning to have some backing, at least. 

 While he merely says he has succeeded, he 

 does not yet give us the plan by which it can 

 be made a success. In the mean time he has 

 left us all curiosity. We hope, therefore, he 

 will not strain that curiosity too long. 



Surprising it is, there are so many new 

 things under the sun that old bee-keepers 

 have not known before. Perhaps here is one 

 of them. Possibly it will do no harm to 

 b'-ake np our orthodoxy once in a while; for 

 it is only by getting clear up out of the old 

 ruts that we may perhaps get up on to the 

 better road 



In the mean time we shall be glad to hear 

 from any of our correspondents who have 

 been able to make the two-queen system work 

 in one hive without the use of perforated 

 zinc. Among our 30,000 subscribers there 

 ought to be a few, at least, who will be able 

 to give us a little light on this nteresting 

 question. — Ed.] 



The final act in creating the great new 

 State of Oklahoma was performed the last 

 week in April, the president of the constitu- 

 tional convention and all the delegates sign- 

 ing their names to the written constitution 

 with an alfalfa pen. 



