1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1593 



fail — indeed, one feels almost ashamed, and 

 inclined to apologize for its simplicity. 



Get an empty ordinary full-depth top-sto- 

 ry and bore a | or f hole in the middle of 

 the lower front to serve as an entrance. Get 

 out two wooden division- boards J in. deeper 

 than your ordinary brood-frame, and cut to 

 length to slip into the top story, and yet not 

 allow room for a bee to pass around the 

 ends. Cut a piece of wire-screen cloth the 

 same length as the division-boards by, say, 

 3^ or 4 in. wide, and tack it on to the lower 

 edges of the two boards, thus forming a spe- 

 cies of cage. 



Put a laying queen into a transfer-cage in 

 your pocket, and take with you a small 

 common wire introducing-cage, say 2 inches 

 square, with one side open to press on to a 

 comb. Go to any colony working in a full- 

 depth top-story for extracted honey. Take 

 off this top story, set it aside, and substitute 

 the prepared one, with cage fitted, which 

 you brought. Transfer to the latter as many 

 of the extracting-combs, bees and all, as it 

 will hold, leaving the cage empty, of course; 

 then select one comb of just-hatching bees, 

 and place it, bees and all, in the cage, to- 

 gether with another comb, either empty or 

 full of honey or hatching brood. Let your 

 new queen on to this, and cover her with the 

 small cage (over food), pressing well into the 

 comb, and then put the frame, etc., into the 

 cage. Cover the division-board cage, con- 

 taining these two frames, with a piece of 

 cloth so as to prevent other bees from get- 

 ting in; but leave the hole in front open so 

 that the old bees can get out. Close the low- 

 er hive and put on the prepared top story 

 and cover. The first thing next morning, 

 let out the queen. See that she is received. 

 In doing so, do not be in too much of a hur- 

 ry about replacing the cloth, for your object 

 is to get rid of any flying bees that may still 

 remain. Close the hive again. In another 

 six hours or so she will be laying, and, if so, 

 remove the top story, hunt the old queen, 

 pick up the new queen, and place her on the 

 same frame, watching the result for a min- 

 ute or two, when the frame with the two 

 queens may be put down below. Your cage 

 in the top story is now ready to take anoth- 

 er queen, to be let out twelve hours later, 

 and so on. 



In the whole business there is but one 

 donH; and that is, do7i't put the new queen 

 down below until she is laying, and then you 

 need have no fears. Also, instead of re- 

 placing the two queens on the one frame we 

 would put one on each of the outside cornbs, 

 thus being as far apart as possible when first 

 put down among the bees. Of course, try 

 them together, as first suggested. 



I can and do considerably shorten the 

 time and details required for introduction, 

 but have given here the whole modus oper- 

 andi so there may be no accident with a test 

 case. Once your queen has the colony odor, 

 and is laying, she will always be received 

 instantaneously. Unfortunately, this is real- 

 ly nucleus-forming on a temporary scale, 

 and also requires a little furniture. This 



latter, however, is not useless; indeed, these 

 division-board cages are just about the most 

 useful articles we have in our yards, where 

 they are in constant requirement for many 

 other purposes. Four or more queens may 

 be put down at once by tacking screen cloth 

 right over the bottom of a top story, divid- 

 ing with division-boards, and holes for the 

 required number, and going ahead as be- 

 fore. As previously mentioned, if you mate 

 from top stories, as you should do, no intro- 

 duction is necessary. In requeening by this 

 method your new queen is laying before the 

 old one is removed, so no time is lost. One 

 caution: Be sure your division- board cage is 

 bee-tight all over— sides, top, and bottom. 

 Ballyvarra, Ireland, Aug. 5. 



THE PLURAL-QUEEN SYSTEM. 



More Honey than from tlie One-queen Sys- 

 tem. 



BY JOHN SHERROD. 



When I saw Mr. Alexander's article last 

 spring on the subject of a plurality of queens 

 in one hive I was very anxious to know how 

 it was done; so I went at the problem myself, 

 and succeeded in putting two queens in each 

 of ten colonies. I got them in about June 

 15. There was no honey-flow here until 

 about July 15. Five of the two-queen colo- 

 nies are in ten-frame hives and five in eight- 

 frame sectional hives, similar to those de- 

 scribed by Mr. J. E. Hand. Queen-exclud- 

 ers are between the two sections of the latter. 



In getting two queens in the ten-frame 

 hives I follow this method: When a swarm 

 comes out I put the frames and bees left in a 

 hive, five combs on each side of a division- 

 board. Entrances are made at opposite ends 

 of the hive. 



As soon as there is a laying-queen from 

 the queen-cells on each side, 1 take out the 

 division-board and substitute one made of 

 queen-excluding zinc. When the colony be- 

 comes strong I put on a ten-frame hive with 

 full sheets of foundation. 



Each colony commences to work on the 

 outside frames, and gradually works to the 

 center, when, 1 suppose, they make friends, 

 as I put on supers after that, and they com- 

 mence in the center, as all colonies do. They 

 make more honey than one-queen colonies 

 with the same showing. 



Now, those queens could get together, if 

 they wished, before I put on supers. One 

 did get around the division-board, and both 

 queens were on one side. The bees on the 

 other side had started a queen-cell, and it 

 was nearly ready to hatch when I found it. 

 I put the queen back, and in two hours I saw 

 the young queen from the cell lying in front 

 of the hive. 



I intended to divide these double-queen 

 colonies and make two colonies about Sept. If). 



Later. — In one or two cases I put a virgin 

 queen on each side in the ten-frame hives. 

 As soon as they were fertile I replaced the 

 division-board with a queen-excluder. 



