412 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



IX 



iber 



Two Queens in One Brood-Chamber 



Dr 



II. Merri 



State Apiarisi. Kansas State Agricul- 

 tural College. 



IN the spring of 1919, a queen w u 

 clipped in one of the colonies at 

 the Kansas State Agricultural 

 College. In the middle of August, on 

 examining this colony, we found an 

 undipped queen. According to our 

 records the old queen had been there 

 on the date of the last examination. 

 Thinking that perhaps this might be 

 one of the rare occasions in which a 

 young queen was working along in 

 the hive with an old queen, I sug 

 gested that they examine the hive 

 carefully with the idea of perhaps 

 finding another queen, and another 

 was found on the opposite side of 

 the hive on the next to the outside 

 frame. Both of these queens were 

 laying queens, as was shown by the 

 presence of young brood in the 

 comb on which each queen was 

 found. The first thought was that 

 probably this was the old queen, 

 and that she was being allowed to 

 remain for a time with the new 

 queen, but upon examining her it 

 was found that she was not clipped. 

 There were two frames of partially 

 drawn comb in the center of the 

 hive, which were evidently serving as 

 an efficient queen excluder, at leait 

 enough so that both queens were 

 working in the same brood-chamber. 



An examination of this colony again 

 three days later showed that only 

 one of the queens remained, which 

 was only to be expected, as the 

 rather thorough examination of the 

 hive would cause the bees to dis- 

 cover the fact that there were two 

 queens in the same hive. The fact 

 that the clipped queen was no lout; :r 

 present, and as neither of the queens 

 which were found were clipped, 

 shows that both of the queens were 

 young queens. It would have been 

 interesting to know how long thej 

 would have gone along in the hive- 

 body if it had not been disturbed, 

 but, of course, as we did not know 

 there were two queens there, we did 

 not try to use an\ extra caution in 

 examining it. 



R 



Sweet Clover a Weed 



ECENTLY 1 had occasion to ex- 

 amine a copy of Prof, I I 

 Pammel's book on "Weeds of 

 the Farm and Garden," a large cloth- 

 bound book. * was greatly surprised 

 to find that the author classes 

 clover with the noxious weeds. Here 

 are some of the unfavorable refer- 

 ences to sweet clover: 



"In lists of weeds commonly found 

 along roadsides, thistle, mustard, rag- 

 weed, burdock, sweet clover," etc. 



In the Iowa seed law. "seeds of 

 following weeds." include sweet clo- 

 ver i See Sec. 11. 1912). 



"Sweet clover, oni of the most 



paper built instead. 



common weeds of pastures, etc., al- 

 though occasionally useful in Iowa 

 as a bee-plant, a soil renovator and 

 a forage plant, we must nevertheless 

 regard it as a weed." 



"In Xew England and the Central 

 States such weeds as dandelion, 

 smartweed, burdock, sweet clover, 

 etc., are all common weeds." 

 - In another place he admits that 

 "sweet clover is an excellent bee- 

 plant, a good forage plant, and a sat- 

 isfactory soil renovator." 



It sems this book of Prof. Pam- 

 mel's was published in 1912, so it may- 

 be that since then he has experi- 

 enced a change of heart in regard to 

 sweet clover, just as many others 

 have been compelled to do during the 

 past decade. 



If sweet clover is such a dangerous 

 weed as the accusations I have quot- 

 ed would indicate, then isn't it 

 strange that so many agricultural 

 experiment stations would urge its 

 wider cultivation? And, again, why 

 should the sale of tons upon tons -)f 

 sweet clover seed all over the coun- 

 try be permitted, if it is a weed? 



In many of the best agricultural 

 papers during the past two or three 

 years the growing of sweet clover 

 has been advised, and plenty of relia- 

 ble testimony has been given show- 

 ing its value for hay and for forage, 

 Strange that a "noxious weed" 

 should be found so valuable for so 

 many purposes! 



It would seem that it would be en- 

 tirely in order for Prof. Pammel to 

 correct his statements relating ro 

 sweet clover as a weed, unless his 

 book has already been discarded. 



For a quarter of a century I have 

 been a booster for sweet clover, and 

 have sold tons of the seed. I have 

 urged its growing not only as a most 

 valuable honey producer, but as a 

 hay and forage crop, as well as a 

 great soil enricher. It seems to me 

 that a plant having so many excel- 

 lent qualities as does sweet clover, is 

 far from being a "common weed." 

 How about it. Prof. Pammel? 



GEORGE W. YOPK. 

 Spokane, Wash. 



The editor has permitted me to see 

 tin above letter from Mr. George W. 

 York. Let us remember the defini- 

 tion of a weed: A plant growing 

 where it is detrimental to another 

 crop. If that is true, sweet clover is 

 a weed under some conditions, I 

 >ay this advisedly. Sweet clover is, 

 however, under other conditions, a 

 most valuable plant, not only as a 

 soil renovator, a forage plant, but a 

 splendid honey-plant. The most re- 

 liable honey-plant we have in Iowa. 



I would much prefer sweet 

 clover on the barren hillsides and 

 roadsides to a host of other plan!s. 

 I advocate its planting. However, I 

 have received frequent letters asking 

 how to exterminate it. I have no ob- 

 jection to the planting of sweet clo- 

 ver in its right place. It should be 

 planted. I want to say the same 

 thing about the yellow sweet clover, 

 which at Ames this year, furnished 

 inuous flow of honey for throe 

 weeks. Tt was better with us this 

 year than white clover. 



