1582 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



mence to lay than to remove the excluders 

 as soon as a few eggs are found. We must 

 all be careful in introducing and trying to 

 keep several queens in one colony. One im- 

 portant part seems to be that the bees and 

 queens must become well acquainted with 

 each other; under certain conditions that 

 neither the queens nor the bees have any de- 

 sire to sting one another. This part of our 

 business is only in its infancy, and it will re- 

 quire some time to work out a perfect meth- 

 od that can be relied on under all circum- 

 stances. E. W. Alexander. 



Delanson, N. Y. 



[At first sight this scheme of clipping 

 queens' stings looked ridiculous; and while, 

 as Mr. Alexander says, the average person 

 may not be able to work it, there may be 

 something in it to determine whether the 

 bees or the queens do the stinging. From a 

 scientific point it may be worth developing. 

 Practically there would not be much in it; 

 as, if the queens can not sting each other, 

 they could bite and worry each other to 

 death just as Mr. Davenes reports they did 

 do in one experiment. To change the sub- 

 ject, it is interesting to note that Mr. D. says 

 that, with the use of excluders, he is "able 

 to keep as many queens as there are supers, 

 right through the winter'" — italics ours. This 

 is something important, and we should be 

 glad to hear more in detail how he does it. 

 —Ed.] 



««»«« 



DOUBLE QUEEN COLONIES. 



More than Two Queens in One Hive Not 



a Success, and these Two Must be 



Kept Separate. 



BY J. E. CHAMBERS. 



Mr. Editor: — After reading your footnote 

 to my article I decided to write an article 

 describing my way of using two queens for 

 getting colony strength, especially when the 

 time is too short for one queen to accom- 

 plish the work. I have read Mr. Titoff's 

 strictures on the plural-queen system, page 

 1328, but I do not think his arguments against 

 the use of two queens very conclusive, for the 

 reason that two of the important factors men- 

 tioned, namely, food and heat, are both pres- 

 ent; but the third one, the ability of the queen 

 to put in the requisite number of eggs in the 

 shortest limit of time, is seldom or never to 

 be relied upon in this climate. To illustrate, 

 during the last half of June and all of July 

 we have a dearth of both pollen and honey, 

 more or less complete; and, though the hives 

 are well stocked with supplies, the queens, 

 even those of Carniolan stock, lay only about 

 two-thirds as many eggs as they should to 

 insure a good strong force for the August flow 

 from sumac. I suspect that this condition is 

 common elsewhere, and it is under just such 

 conditions that I use two queens with com- 

 plete and gratifying success. But in my 

 practice I do not try to introduce more than 

 two queens to a colony. In fact, it is really 

 the use of two colonies as well as of two 



queens. As will be recalled, perhaps, I men- 

 tioned in my article on p. 1146, Sept. 1, that 

 means to keep the queens apart are neces- 

 sary in order to insure success; and in your 

 footnote you emphasize the words means to 

 keep them apart, and ask whether I refer to 

 separating bees or queens. I refer to both 

 bees and queens, but to queens in particular. 

 The bees are not the main cause of the trou- 

 ble. 



My plan of using two queens contemplates 

 the employment of a device to separate en- 

 tirely the queens and to keep the bees in an 

 isolated condition. This secures for the api- 

 arist all of the advantages claimed for the 

 two-queen plan, without the fuss and uncer- 

 tainty of a long process of preparation and 

 introduction of queens. Briefly desci'ibed, it 

 consists of a board, the size of the top of a 

 hive, with a large opening in the middle. 

 This opening is 14 inches long and 10 wide, 

 and is covered top and bottom with wire 

 cloth. There is also a one-inch hole covered 

 with excluding zinc in each corner of the 

 board, and a flight-hole in the rear. This 

 completes the device. When using, it is laid 

 over the main hive, and another body is 

 placed on it. A set of empty combs is put in, 

 and a young laying queen in a cage is given. 

 The cover is then put on and the operation 

 is complete. Soon quite a few bees come up 

 through the holes in the corners that are cov- 

 ered with zinc. These soon take up with the 

 caged queen and gnaw her out. A new en- 

 trance is established through the flight-hole 

 in the rear, and in a few days another colo- 

 ny is established; but the severance is never 

 complete, and they can never be reunited. 

 After a start is made, brood-rearing goes on 

 quite fast, for, even though the number of 

 bees with the upper queen is not great, the 

 heat coming up through the wire cloth fur- 

 nishes all the warmth needed. I run for ex- 

 tracted honey only; and when the flow is 

 once on I remove the board; and the colony, 

 now grown very powerful, is all together. ' 



Though this plan has its defects I know it 

 gives me good results. With the ordinary 

 deep hive- bodies it would have some serious 

 faults; but with mine that are only six inch- 

 es deep, two bodies below and one above, 

 with two extra bodies for surplus room, it is 

 ideal. It is no trouble to establish a colony 

 in this way. as it takes only a hive, a queen, 

 and a set of combs, and the bees do the rest; 

 and just think what colonies — 180 lbs. of hon- 

 ey in the short space of fourteen days tells 

 the tale. 



San Angelo, Texas. 



BOTTOM STARTERS IN SECTIONS. 



Some Unsatisfactory Results ; Why the Un- 

 even Comb Honey was Produced. 



BY W. A. PRYAL. 



The past season I tried Dr. Miller's meth- 

 od of placing two starters in a section, as de- 

 scribed by that eminent apiarist in his fasci- 

 nating book, "Forty Years Among the Bees. " 



