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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



expensive arrangement for an apiary unless 

 it were one condui-ted on a very large 

 scale. For extracting-yards of any ordinary 

 size the sliding-door plan described on page 

 1574 of the Dec. 15th issue for 1906 would be 

 more practical. It may not be true in this 

 case; but sometimes a labor-saving device 

 costs more than the labor which it saves. — 

 Ed.] 



»»»« 



THE PLURAL QUEEN SYSTEM. 



Some Doubts Expressed as to the Ben- 

 efits to be Derived from Such a Plan. 



BY ABRAM TITOFF. 



Gleanings has devoted a great deal of 

 space to the discussion of the practice of what 

 might be called "the two-queen system" 

 This magazine, with its world-wide circu- 

 lation, succeeded in interesting even foreign- 

 ers in this question. In proof of this I can 

 point out that I received some inquiries from 

 Russian bee-keepers. They ask me how we 

 can do such a thing as to keep two queens 

 in one colony, and also what benefit can be 

 obtained from it. 



So far as I can see, all the literature on the 

 above-mentioned subject gives us nothing but 

 the report of the possibility of having, for 

 some time, two queens in the same colony; 

 but no one as yet tells us in detail whether 

 it is really possible to put it into general 

 practice and obtain good results from it. 



I am, personally, very much interested in 

 this question, and should be greatly pleased 

 if any one would tell me the full details of 

 practicing the two-queen system, and also 

 about the profit that could be derived from it. 



While waiting for such information I wish 

 to express a view of my own on the subject. 

 I confess that I do not believe that much ben- 

 efit can be obtained from the practice of the 

 two- queen system, or, perhaps, it will be 

 more correct to say that I do not believe that 

 the two-queen system could be put into gen- 

 eral practice with satisfactory results under 

 ordinary conditions. Speaking so, I base 

 my doubts on the fact that it would not be 

 possible to keep two queens in the same col- 

 ony for the greater part of a year. They 

 could be kept there for a limited time only, 

 for a few weeks during the heavy honey-flow; 

 but I do not think it will be practical to keep 

 two queens at that time. We do not need 

 them then. There are many bee-keepers who, 

 during the heavy honey-flow, allow even a 

 single queen the freedom of only two or 

 three frames, in order to obtain more honey. 



I am trying to get along with my bees ac- 

 cording to the laws of nature, and I do not 

 believe either in the limiting of the action of 

 a single queen or in having another one at 

 the time of a heavy honey-flow, for I know 

 that the bees which will hatch 20 days later, 

 or those which will be able to fly into the 

 field after the honey-harvest is over, do not 



* This article, as will be seen, was written before 

 the article by E. W. Alexander was published in our 

 issue for Sept. 1, page 1136.— Ed. 



amount to very much. It is true we need ■ 

 young bees for winter; but one queen, if she 

 is good, is quite able to produce a sufficient ^ 

 amount of these. I 



Some will say that we need two queens in | 

 the spring to build up colonies to get ready 

 for the harvest. I also deny such assertion 

 as impractical. The colony in the spring 

 does not need two queens. It needs the 

 warmth and the food more than any thing 

 else. If a colony lacks these two things you 

 can not help it, even by introducing half a _ 

 dozen queens. ■ 



No matter how strong a colony you pre- 1 

 pare for winter, it naturally comes out some- 

 what weaker in the spring, and it is often 

 observed that there are not enough bees to 

 attend and warm the eggs and larvse that are 

 produced by one queen. The colony is not 

 in want of eggs, but the attendants for them. 

 We are aware of the fact that a queen is able 

 to lay, say, 3000 eggs in a day, on an aver- 

 age; "but in the spring they lay much less 

 than that because there are not enough bees 

 in the colony to clean the cells, to nurse the 

 brood, and to go to the field. Put the colo- 

 ny in the most favorable conditions in this 

 respect and you will see that a good queen 

 will be able to supply a colony with the need- 

 ed amount of eggs. Remember that it was 

 the good queens which forced one of the most 

 practical bee-keepers of this country, Mr. 

 Charles Dadant, to enlarge the frame and to 

 adopt a larger hive, and it was done for the 

 purpose of giving room enough for the action 

 of a good queen. From my own experience 

 I also know that a good queen is able to pro- 

 duce bees enough to gather 480 lbs. of honey 

 in one season (in California), and therefore 

 I think the only thing we need to do in or- 

 der to get a strong colony is to have one good 

 well-developed queen of good strain, instead 

 of bothering ourselves about assistant queens, 

 especially as, after all, the benefits of the 

 practice are at present very doubtful. 



I will not speak at length about the diffi- 

 culties of introducing another queen into the 

 colony, and the difticulties of saving reserved 

 queens during the winter; but in conclusion 

 I wish to point out one more thing: When 

 we intend to help the bees by our own labor 

 we must do it according to the laws of na- 

 ture, and we ought not to interfere with their 

 life as far as this interference will break these 

 laws, and the two-queen system does break 

 them. We know that such a thing as the 

 presence of two queens in one colony, when 

 the latter is under ordinary conditions, does 

 not exist. When a colony prepares to swarm, 

 the old queen goes out from the old hive long 

 before the young one is hatched; and if a 

 colony is not inclined to issue the second 

 swarm, the first young queen, immediately 

 after hatching, destroys all the other queen- 

 cells that aie in the hive, and remains alone 

 to govern it. If a colony did need two queens 

 it would seem that it needs them after swarm- 

 ing more than at any other time to develop 

 the strength of the colony and to maintain 

 the former dignity of the commune. Yet in 

 nature we never meet with such a state of 



