84 



SEVENTH AN]MUAL REPORT OF THE 



Mr. Selser: Do I understand there 

 are two things, one being that it is 

 good for wintering over a number of 

 queens, and the other that you will 

 get more brood at the right time? 



The president: Yes. 



Mr. Selser: Doesn't it follow that 

 one queen is not equal to the emer- 

 gency? I think on general principles 

 that is not correct. 



Mr. Hershisher: I suggest if there 

 are any members of the Association 

 here who have tried the plan and know 

 anything about it that we hear from 

 them; let us not have theories. 



Mr. Catherman: I understand Mr. 

 Miller has be'en successful in having 

 two queens in one hive. 



Mr. Miller: I am like the little boy, 

 I like to be seen only and not heard 

 very much. I came here to learn and 

 I am determined to learn if there is 

 anything to be learned. Before this 

 Alexander method came out in the 

 papers I was trying to learn this. I 

 formed the idea that there could be 

 two queens in a hive. I con- 

 ceived the idea that possibly we 

 might put in yearling queens and still 

 work them just as well. I will give 

 you my results. This spring, early, I 

 went to a fairly good colony and they 

 had a yearling queen. I took my 

 scissors and clipped the queen's right 

 wing. I knew then I had my queen 

 marked so that I would know her. 

 She was a very prolific queen. I used 

 a ten frame hive. During my queen 

 breeding a little later on I found I 

 had a few inferior queens in color but 

 good in laying quality and I didn't care 

 to send them out to my customers. I 

 took a queen excluding zinc and placed 

 it in one side of the hive, with two 

 or three frames to one side, and forced 

 the laying queen to the other side of 

 the hive with her brood. I proceeded 

 then to introduce my queens at one 

 side, and in fl.ve days I went back to 

 find the queen and I found her in there 

 laying. I clipped her left wing and I 

 forced her over to the other side of 

 the hive with the other laying queen. 

 I placed my queen excluding zinc back 

 where it was and proceeded to intro- 

 duce another queen, of which I clipped 

 both wings, and she was introduced 

 all right and started laying just as 

 the others. I stopped at that because 

 my hive was only a ten frame hive. 

 I left three frames with her on one 

 side and the other six with the two 

 queens on the other side. The queen 



excluding zinc took the place of one 

 frame. Dui"ing white clover honey 

 flow those three queens continued their 

 work and the brood was from edge 

 of frame to edge. They kept it well 

 filled. I went back between white 

 clover and buckwheat flow, during the 

 honey dearth, and I found the three 

 queens as peaceful as three drones. I 

 found two queens on the one comb 

 laying. One queen was a year old 

 clipped on the right wing; one was a 

 spring queen clipped on the left wing. 

 Those queens remained there peacfully 

 all summer and they kept the colony 

 well supplied with brood. This colony 

 gave me more honey than two other 

 colonies, and during the dearth of 

 buckwheat and golden rod it contin- 

 ued just the same. They* were peace- 

 ful until after everything was closed 

 down. 



I will show you where I made my 

 mistake. I was dissatisfled with two 

 of those queens because they were 

 inferior queens. I went to my colony 

 and found them all right. I destroyed 

 my two inferior queens and went back 

 to my queen breeding department and 

 found two better queens, I thought, 

 and I went to re -introduce, and I 

 didn't get one of them in. That was 

 after the entire crop was over and all 

 the brood had emerged. I expect to 

 follow that thing further on next year. 



I have two colonies in my yard to- 

 day with two flne queens in the same 

 colony, and they are working fine; 

 but after I took out those inferior 

 queens and decided to put in better 

 ones I found that didn't succeed; the 

 bees destroyed the queens. The queens 

 didn't do any mischief at all. I went 

 to the other colonies and I drew one 

 comb and I slipped down between a 

 division board, and I have those queens 

 in there in fine condition. But, that 

 does not answer the question as to 

 whether they will winter together. 

 Las • Saturday I went to my queen 

 rearing yard and I expected to throw 

 a lot of them together. In one of my 

 queen rearing nuclei, it was three 

 frames, my record showed me as hav- 

 ing a fine queen in there, and I in- 

 tended to throw her into a colony 

 somewhere to winter over; and I found 

 in that same nuclei a young laying 

 queen, and I found a virgin queen 

 there, peacefully getting along together 

 without any brood. How this came 

 about I can't explain because my yard 



