36 ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 
IMPORTANCE OF STARTING RIGHT. 
You are the architect of your business—yes, of your whole life; so 
let no opportunity for improvement pass unimproved. Before entering 
upon bee-keeping or any other line of business, be sure you start right. 
My friend, did you ever realize the importance of those two words, 
“start right?’ ‘Teach your little children to study them; and when you 
see those poor drifting wrecks of humanity wandering up and down 
your highways in their abject poverty, tell your children that those poor 
souls which are now fairly steeped in vice and crime are the result of 
starting wrong in this life, and that only God knows what the result 
will be in the life to come. 
Please pardon me in so often drifting from my subject; but when 
J think of that short sentence it seems as if I could write a whole volume 
on its importance. 
THE RIGHT WAY TO MAKE INCREASE. 
There are various ways of making increase. We prefer to build up 
the colonies to be divided until they are very strong in bees and brood; 
then when the division is made and the queenless part is given a laying 
queen, we soon have two good colonies ready for the harvest. We think 
this is a much better way than to build up nuclei. Let the same rule 
apply to making increase, as all other work in the apiary, which should 
be a harmonizing with your knowledge and the natural instincts of your 
bees. This is quite important in order to secure the best results. If we 
adopt methods according to their natural instincts then surely we shall 
secure better results than if we try to force them into unnatural condi- 
tions, which to quite an extent soon causes them to become discouraged. 
July, 1907. 
HOW TO MAKE INCREASE AND CONTROL SWARMING AT THE SAME TIME. 
This subject has received, perhaps, as much thought and study as 
any other one thing connected with bee-keeping, and I will try to show 
that, with proper management, you can have two colonies, each nearly 
equal to what the mother colony would have been for the clover har- 
vest, if not divided, and fully equal for a later harvest. 
In calling your attention to this matter I take it for granted that 
you keep bees like myself, for the purpose of making the most money 
out of them you can, regardless of increase or the number of colonies 
you may have. Simply make what increase will add to your present 
season’s crop of honey. In the first place, let me impress upon your 
mind the importance of doing every thing in your power, not only to 
build up all your colonies as strong in bees as you can after taking them 
from their winter quarters, but to keep them in that condition to the 
