THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



313 



taken from sound colonies, and on each 

 side of these all-capped combs place a 

 division board. This will put these col- 

 onies in first-class order for winter with 

 little or no bother at all, and the disease 

 crowded clean out at the same time. But 

 some say that the disease cannot be 

 driven out so simply in the fall by taking 

 away the diseased combs and giving the 

 bees six combs that are capped all over 

 .right down to the bottom of the frames, 

 it can and does cure every time when 

 properly done, and if you will stop to 

 think you will see quite plainly that the 

 bees must keep the diseased honey they 

 took out of the old combs until they con- 

 sume it, as they cannot find any place in 

 all capped combs to put it, and that will 

 end the disease at once. Many bee-keep- 

 ers will no doubt say that this fall method 

 of treatment will not work in their apiar- 

 ies at all. because they would not have 

 enough of the all cappea combs to spare 

 from the sound colonies, even if they 

 could find some all sealed. Very true: 

 but you can very easily secure abundance 

 of all capped combs by putting Miller 

 feeders on your sound colonies in the 

 evenings in September, and feeding these 

 colonies all the sugar syrup you can get 

 them to take. Then in October each of 

 these fed colonies can spare the two out- 

 side combs, which will be nicely capped 

 all over right down to the bottom of the 

 frames, and with these combs you will be 

 provided with plenty of gccd stores to 

 carry out my fall method of treatment. 1 

 finished the curing of my own apiary in 

 the fall of 1875 by this sealed comb 

 treatment. All of my methods of treat- 

 ment are of my own working out, and 

 none of them ever failed when properly 

 carried out. 



Empty hives that have had foul brood 

 in do not need disinfecting in any way. 



In treating diseased colonies never 

 starve the bees, because it unfits them 

 for business and makes them thin, lean 

 and poor, and is also hard on the queens. 

 I never starved any bees, but always 

 tried to see how fat I could make them 

 while treating them by feeding plenty of 

 sugar syrup when the bees were not 

 gathering honey. 



If you have nice white combs that are 

 clean and dry, and that never had any 

 brood in them, do not destroy one of these, 

 as they are perfectly safe to use on any 

 colony of bees just as they are, and are 

 very valuable to any bee-keeper. I have 

 always saved this class of combs for 

 every bee-keeper. I have always advised 

 bee-keepers to convert into wax all old 

 combs that ever had one cell of foul 



brood in them, and the only article that 

 will take all the wax out of the old combs 

 is a good wax press. As these will pay 

 for themselves many times over their 

 cost. I urge the bee-keepers everywhere 

 to buy one. 



PLURALITY OF QULLN5. 



Can the Keeping of Two or More Queens 

 in One Colony be Made a Prac- 

 tical Success? 



For several months there have been 

 hints in the journals that Mr. E. W. Al- 

 exander was making a success of having 

 two or more laying queens in the same 

 colony. We all know that when an old 

 queen is being superseded, it is not an un- 

 usual thing to find the old queen and her 

 daughter laying side by side. Eventually, 

 the old queen disappears. Aside from 

 this it is not usual to find two laying 

 queens presiding over the same brood 

 nest. 



An after-swarm is often accompanied 

 by a plurality of queens, but only one re- 

 mains as mother of the colony. Two or 

 more swarms, each accompanied by a 

 laying queen, sometimes unite in one 

 cluster, and are hived together, but all 

 except one of the queens soon disappear. 

 I have often thought that it might he pos- 

 sible to introduce another queen to a col- 

 ony already possessed of a queen, but I 

 have felt certain that one of the queens 

 would soon disappear. It seems that Mr. 

 Alexander has been successful in intro- 

 ducing several queens to one colony. He 

 describes the plan in Gleanings, and here 

 is how he does it: — 



First, prepare a small box, about five 

 or six inches square, by boring a one-half- 

 inch hole in one end. This you will for 

 the present close, then remove a part of 

 its two sides and cover with wire cloth so 

 as to ventilate it well. This we call our 

 introducing-box. Take this box and a 

 common queen-cage to the colony to 

 which you wish to introduce your choice 

 queen, or several of them, in fact, remove 

 its combs and put its queen, without any 

 bees, into the queen-cage you have. 

 While doing this shake about a pint of 



