1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1385 



away all the honey from a strong colony, 



and putting it practically on the starvation 



basis, the doctor might be able to get enough 



of cucumber honey to determine its quality. 



We hope he will experiment another year. — 



Ed] 



««>» 



THE NEW WHITE ITALIAN CLOVER. 



BY W. K. MORRISON. 



The well-known and reliable seed firm of 

 T. W. Woods & Sons, of Richmond, Va., has 

 recently put on the American market a new 

 kind of clover which may have an important 

 bearing on the bee business in some sections 

 of this country. It is a white-flowered vari- 

 ety of the well-known crimson clover. 



The new clover, they claim, is a consider- 

 able improvement on the crimson by reason 

 of its larger growth and later season. It is 

 so much later that it can be planted with 

 winter oats, and the two mature together. 

 This, of course, yields a heavy crop of valu- 

 able hay early in the year. They say it is 

 even better than the crimson for early graz- 

 ing, as it is naturally heavier and denser in 

 growth. 



If these claims can be substantiated it is 

 evident that bee-keepers will have a new 

 source from which to get a honey crop. We 

 have come to the conclusion of late that it 

 pays either to give away alsike seed or sell 

 it at a low price. It is just possible that the 

 white Italian clover is equally good. We 

 do not know but it is worthy of a fair trial. 

 We shall be glad to get reports. 



THE PLURAL QUEEN SYSTEM. 



No Trouble to Introduce a Number of Queens 



to Bees, but Difficult to Introduce 



them to Each Other. 



BY J. E. HAND. 



I have read with a great deal of interest 

 Mr. Alexander's article on page 1136, in which 

 he tells how he is able to introduce success- 

 fully several queens to a colony of bees. 

 This is a matter over which I have spent no 

 little time and thought, since I have for sev- 

 eral years practiced the two-queen system of 

 building up colonies for the early honey- 

 flow; however, such queens are always sep- 

 arated by queen-excluding metal, the bees 

 having access to both queens through the zinc 

 honey-board which separates the two shallow 

 brood-sections. It is a fact well known that 

 bees will accept almost any number of queens 

 or queen-cells; and, while I have experienc- 

 ed no difficulty in introducing a plurality of 

 queens to a colony of bees, so far as the bees 

 are concerned, i have as yet not been able 

 to introduce successfully the queens to each 

 other, and invariably one would come up 

 missing in a short time. 



Several years ago I became quite enthusi- 

 astic over this matter of a plurality of queens 

 all loose in the hive together. However, I 



have not been able to make a success of it. 

 I am led to conclude that scent or odor of 

 bees or queens cuts no figure whatever in 

 the introduction of the same. I have had 

 two queens in two sections of my shallow 

 hive, separated by perforated zinc, for six 

 weeks, when, upon removing the zinc honey- 

 board, one of them very soon "came up miss- 

 ing." I recently put two queens in a cage 

 without any bees, and in about one minute 

 one was dead. My queens will fight to a 

 finish. Whether this is due to the strain of 

 bees or to some other cause I am unable to 

 say. 



Will Mr. Alexander please tell us how long 

 he is able to keep two or more queens in one 

 colony unseparated? To my mind the only 

 safe way to use a plurality of queens in a 

 colony is by means of shallow brood-sections 

 separated by queen-excluding zinc, thus giv- 

 ing the bees free access to all the queens in 

 the hive. Since two queens will lay eggs as 

 fast as one colony of bees can care for the 

 brood I can not see that any thing is gained 

 by having more queens; however, you can 

 tier up these shallow brood -sections as high 

 as you please and have a queen in each, and 

 there will be bees enough to care for all the 

 brood, and no danger of the queens killing 

 each other. 



Birmingham, O. 



[The evidence seems to be accumulating, 

 to the effect that it is possible to work the 

 plural-queen system under some conditions 

 at least. A large number have thus far re- 

 ported on the feasibility of having two moth- 

 ers in a hive, but separated from each other 

 by a perforated zinc. While there are con- 

 ditions under which the two may be allowed 

 to come in contact without being separated 

 by the zinc, in the generality of cases it 

 seems to be advisable to use the perforated 

 metal. 



As Mr. Hand well says, there is no great 

 difficulty in having a plurality of queens in 

 a colony so far as "the bees are concerned " 

 (italics ours); but it is not thus easy "to in- 

 troduce the queens to each other." But our 

 correspondent further adds that he has been 

 led to "conclude that scent or odor of bees 

 or queens cuts no figure whatever in the in- 

 troduction of the same. ' ' This does not seem 

 to us reasonable. If the scent factor has no 

 part in the matter, then we are at a loss to 

 conclude how the bees under some conditions 

 recognize and attack a strange queen that 

 does not belong in the hive. Ihe sense of 

 smell in the bee is very highly developed; 

 then why should it not be the means by which 

 bees know their own? It is easy to see that 

 the question of odor has little or no bearing 

 on the relation of one queen to another. In 

 this case it is not a question of scent, but a 

 jealous rivalry as to which shall enjoy the 

 sole and undivided respect of her subjects. 



We feel firmly convinced that the two-queen 

 scheme of getting a large amount of brood, 

 and hence a stronger colony, is bound to 

 come to the front. If it is desirable to have 

 a queen extra prolific (and there is no ques- 



