ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 81 
for honey or pollen; and when extracting-combs were put on top a 
very large surplus was easily obtained. This fact alone was enough to 
encourage us in testing this method still further, Then another result 
from our experiments, so far as we have gone, is that we have never 
had a colony with two or more laying queens show any desire to 
swarm. 
This is something we can not understand, as we expected these 
strong full colonies to be the first to swarm. In order to see if we 
could force one full colony last summer to swarm, we put 14 good laying 
queens into it at one time, and in about two weeks we examined it 
and found the 14 queens we had put in two weeks before, and their 
own queen all in harmony together, with nearly every cell in their 
combs containing brood; then during the rest of the season we used 
this colony as a queen-nursery. Sometimes we would take three or 
four queens from it to use in other colonies, and occasionally we put in 
five or six at a time, and none were ever balled or stung. In fact, 
there was no queen injured in any way in that hive during the season. 
I have seen three or four on the same side of a comb crawling among 
the bees, and whenever they would touch each other they would start 
quick in an opposite direction. 
VIRGINS RECALCITRANT. 
Now, don’t think that you can handle virgin queens in this way, 
for you can not. They will sting each other or a laying queen as soon 
as they. come together. There is not much you can do with virgin 
queens until they are fertilized and commence laying; then their de- 
sire to sting other queens is all gone. I have often kept two or three 
laying queens under a common drinking-glass on the work-bench for a 
number of days without their trying to sting each other. 
The worst feature to overcome in giving our colonies two or more 
laying queens is in knowing how to introduce them safely. 
Last summer my son Frank discovered the most practical method 
of introducing queens that I have ever heard of—a method whereby 
over 90 per cent are safely introduced and laying within 18 hours from 
the time the parent queen was removed. He wants to test this method 
still further another season before giving it to the readers of GLEAN- 
ines; then if it still works as well as it has with us in the past there 
will be no trouble in giving our colonies as many laying queens as we 
may desire. If so, it will be another advance made in modern bee- 
keeping. 
I can already see several advantages in keeping two or more queens 
in one colony. First, in requeening we would have to remove only the 
oldest queen. Next, our hives would be kept very full of brood, which 
would give us strong colonies, and there would be no more complaint 
about our bees storing too much honey in the brood-nest. Then, for 
some unaccountable reason, it does seem to prevent the desire to swarm; 
and with colonies that contain nearly twice the usual working force 
