24 ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 
50 cents’ worth if judiciously used, will be enough to carry the colony 
through the whole spring, and will, many times, be the means of giving 
you a large increase of colonies long before your harvest for surplus 
honey commences. 
The rearing of early queens is very important; also early drones. 
This part of our business has been made very easy and plain by such 
men as Pratt, and I will pass it for the present. But there is one thing 
I must describe, and that is the proper and best way to care for our 
little weak colonies after taking them from their winter quarters. It 
is this: As soon as they have some uncapped brood in their hives, take 
them to a good strong colony; remove its cover and put a queen-excluder 
in its place, then set the weak one on top of the excluder and close 
up all entrances to the weak colony, except what they have through the 
excluder, down into the strong colony below. Leave them in this way 
together four or five weeks; then separate them and you will have two 
good colonies and will have saved yourself all worry about these weak 
colonies being robbed, chilled, or starved. When we are feeding the 
other colonies we usually give these a few spoonfuls of the warm syrup 
in a comb next their brood. This encourages them; and if there is not 
more than a cupful of bees they don’t get much from the feeder under 
the strong colony. I have explained at bee conventions this way of 
saving these little colonies, and have received very complimentary let- 
ters afterward from prominent bee-keepers, saying that this idea was 
worth more than $100 to them. 
This is something we have been practicing for more than twenty 
years. Some seasons we have a large number of weak colonies on top 
of strong ones during early spring, and we don’t lose five per cent of 
them. I am sure it goes a long way toward preventing spring dwin- 
dling. 
I think I have shown you how we can keep our bees warm and com- 
fortable through the sudden changes of early spring; also how we 
can stimulate them to early breeding by keeping them warm and feed- 
ing a little thin syrup every day. This is very important; and how 
you may save those little weak colonies and have them ready for your 
early harvest. 
March, 1906. 
WHY SOME HAVE FAILED WITH THE PLAN FOR BUILDING UP WEAK COLONIES. 
For the benefit of a few bee-keepers who have made a failure of this 
method, and also for the benefit of a very large number of new sub- 
scribers to Gieanrines, I will rewrite this method in question, and make 
it as plain as I can. 
About six or seven days after taking your bees from their winter 
quarters, pick out and mark all your weak colonies, also your strongest 
