1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



773 



a heavy one to nothing, all in one day, as I 

 did, he will find that all except one and in 

 most cases all the queens will be killed. 



To illustrate: In running on the two-queen 

 system, and in using excluders to keep the 

 queens below, I found very frequently, when 

 brood was raised above the excluder, that 

 they would build queen-cells during the flow. 

 Oftentimes these escaped my notice, and in 

 due time I would have laying queens both 

 above and below the excluder. 



My experience perfectly coincides with 

 Mr. Alexander's in the fact that such colo- 

 nies, with more than one laying queen, never 

 make any attempt at swarming; in fact, they 

 act as though they did not know how to work 

 fast enough. They roll in the honey as long 

 as there is a flow, with a vim seen only in 

 such colonies; but when the honey-flow drops 

 off about July 25 to 28 we generally find all 

 queens dead in such hives in three days. In 

 fact, at such a time any thing from a two- 

 frame nucleus to a two-frame hive or more 

 is liable to have its queen dead at the entrance, 

 within three days from the close of the flow. 

 Nor is it poor ones that receive such treat- 

 ment, for I flnd it to be my very best and 

 most prolific queens that go. It is almost 

 impossible to get such a colony to receive a 

 queen of any description for about ten days, 

 and in some cases I have to wait even long- 

 er. This may seem like a very peculiar con- 

 dition, but such is the case over a large por- 

 tion of Southern Wisconsin. 



Where the white-clover flow ceases on ac- 

 count of excessive heat, and there is no other 

 honey-producing plant, such a condition will 

 exist. Where the flow is continuous many 

 things can be accomplished that can not be 

 where there is not. 



I am glad Mr. Alexander has given his ex- 

 perience along this line, and there are many 

 places where the bee-keeper of careful habits 

 can keep a number of laying queens in one 

 hive, and it does not matter much whether 

 they are separated or not; but what I am 

 now and have been working on is a system 

 where we can multiply laying queens in each 

 hive at the right time without the fuss and 

 bother usually entailed in getting them, and 

 still not have them all destroyed by a cessa- 

 tion of the flow. I am satisfied that I have 

 this; and after another season's trial I shall 

 be prepared to give it to the public. I do 

 not believe in being too hasty in putting out 

 new things, for we get enough criticism from 

 those "bungling " bee-keepers anyway, with- 

 out needlessly exposing ourselves to the fire 

 of the rank and file, who know nothing of 

 the real facts, and simply reason it out from 

 things they supposed were facts, which we 

 find, upon careful experiment, to be entirely 

 wrong. 



Hines, Wis. 



hardly have been a case of superseding, as 

 my bees were weak, and I think there were 

 no drones flying then. The next spring I 

 sent for an Italian queen, probably the first 

 brought to that county, and took her in her 

 cage to a queenless colony that I had prepar- 

 ed for her. I was then green and awkward 

 at handling queens, and she flew away, and 

 so I lost her. Some two weeks after, while 

 examining a hive about ten steps from the 

 one to which 1 intended to introduce the 

 queen, to my surprise and delight I found 

 my yellow-banded queen, and I think it was 

 on the next comb that I also found the old 

 black queen. 



During that summer I had a nucleus stand- 

 ing near a strong colony of hybrids. At 

 about the time the young Italian queen should 

 take her wedding flight she disappeared. 

 Some time after I found two Italian queens 

 in that strong colony. The one being extra 

 large and well marked, like the lost virgin, 

 I concluded that this was she. 



I should be very much pleased to have 

 Mr. Alexander tell us how to introduce sev- 

 eral queens to a colony, as I think that 

 knowledge would be a benefit to me. 



Lander, Wy. I. W. Beckwith. 



MORE THAN ONE LAYING QUEEN IN A HIVE. 



About two months after my bees deserted 

 their hives and doubled up at the time refer- 

 red to in my former article, I once found 

 two fertile queens working together. It could 



TWO LAYING QUEENS IN ONE COLONY. 



Last spring I had two breeding queens Nos. 



1 and 2. No. 1 was very weak in bees; No. 



2 medium; both were very good layers, and 

 nice big prolific queens. I used No. 1 the 

 most for breeding young ones, hence did not 

 get that colony strong; but No. 2 was full of 

 bees early in the summer before I expected. 

 Every now and then I had it open to take 

 eggs out. Finally I noticed it had started 

 queen-cells. I did not know the cause, as 

 honey was coming in too slowly to expect 

 it to swarm. Later I found virgins and the 

 old laying queen in the same hive, so I took 

 out the virgins. After a while I again found 

 nice cells, so I commenced to cut out cells to 

 give to nuclei — how many, I can't say. Then 

 dui'ing haying and grain-harvesting time I 

 was so busy that I could open no hives. No. 

 2, I think, was not opened till the latter part 

 of September, then, to my surprise, I found 

 nothing like a queen— no eggs nor brood, 

 and the colony weak. Now, No. 1 I had 

 opened very often in order to take out eggs, 

 etc., until about the last part of June. Re- 

 member, this was kept weak by taking eggs; 

 but still I also cut out two ripe cells, if I 

 mistake not, about the 26th of June, and 

 then, as nearly as I can say, I did not have 

 it open for about two months. Then when I 

 looked through that colony I found two laying 

 queens. Both looked nice and big. I let both 

 go until Nov. 19, then I took the young one out; 

 but before I caught her I had the hive open 

 perhaps 20 minutes, just to see what the 

 queens would do before my eyes; and let me 

 tell you, friends, that said queens were so 

 proud of each other (so it seemed) that they 

 crawled on top of each other, over and over 

 again. It seemed they were kissing each 

 other. I only wished the hive were packed 



