THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



367 



DON T PUT MARKS ON SHIPPING GASES. 



As soon as the crop is cased up, before 

 there has been time for the cases to be- 

 come soiled, crate it up in carriers, ready 

 for the market. Then mark the net 

 weight of all the cases it contains, on the 

 outside. 



More than 25 years ago, we learned 

 better than to put the gross, tare, and net 

 weight on our cases. We once took a 

 case of comb honey, so marked, to a gro- 

 cer, and he set the case on the scales, and 

 the weight was a few ounces short. 



This was embarrassing; and the only 



thing I could do was to allow the shortage 

 and lay it to the variation in the scales. 



1 was not satisfied however; I was sure 

 my scales were correct; and I had no rea- 

 son to think the groceryman's scales were 

 unaccurate. 



On my way home I thought of how 

 damp those cases were when nailed up 

 and weighed; this was the secret, the 

 case, not the honey had shrunk. Mark 

 the net weight only on your comb honey 

 cases. 



Remus, Mich., Feb. 4, 1907. 



l-t^^^v^^T*^ 



Some Experiments and Prospects 

 With Plurality of Queens. 



H. S. PHILBROOK. 



HAVE worked at bee-keeping about 

 27 years, and now have something over 

 550 colonies, but am something of a 

 greenhorn at writing for publication, how- 

 ever, I see so much being said about 

 plurality of queens, and the results, that I 

 am led to give my experience in that line. 



MANY QUEENS LOST IN EXPERIMENTING. 



1 expect I have lost fully 1,000 queens 

 in my various experiments, and let me say 

 right here, to begin with, that if Mr. Al- 

 exander succeeds in keeping a plurality 

 of queens in his hives over winter and 

 spring, he has a gentler and more tract- 

 able lot of bees than most of us have. 



A SUGGESTIVE OCCURRENCE. 



In the spring of 1905 I found a plural- 

 ity of queens in one hive: and it occurred 

 in such a strange manner as to set me to 

 studying on the possit)j>^ of keeping a 

 plurality of queens in all colonies. The 

 plurality occurred as follows: Having 

 lost the old queen in this colony, from 

 paralysis, I placed two ripe queen cells in 



the colony when the honey flow was at its 

 height: and, later, found two young, lay- 

 ing queens on the same comb. 



I next put two laying queens in a large 

 cage, when there was immediately a fight, 

 to the death of one of them. I then re- 

 moved the live one, and with my cuticle 

 scissors, clipped the tip ofP her sting; 

 and having treated another queen in the 

 same manner, I put them together in the 

 cage, and watched the result. There 

 were numerous vain endeavors to sting 

 each other, but. in the course of 15 min- 

 utes they seemed to realize their inability 

 to sting each other, and I then put them 

 into an introducing cage, and introduced 

 them to a queenless colony in the ordin- 

 ary way. Both were accepted, and got 

 on together nicely, as long as the honey 

 flow lasted, but as soon as the bees began 

 preparing for winter, one came up missing. 



CLIPPING STINGS AND MANDIBLES. 



The following spring I tried mating sev- 

 eral virgins from one colony, by clipping 

 their stings. They would fight until they 



