ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 39 



mence work on your clover harvest, which here commences about June 

 15. 



From an extensive experience along this line I find I can get nearly 

 twice the amount of surplus by dividing as above stated over what I was 

 able to acquire either by letting them go undivided or dividing in a 

 way that caused the loss of a greater part of their brood. This losing 

 of brood we must guard against at all times if we expect to secure a 

 fine surplus. It costs both time and honey to produce it, and it is the 

 principal factor in obtaining those strong colonies that give us tons of 

 honey. 



Far too many bee-keepers think that the value of their apiary con- 

 sists in the number of colonies they keep. This Is so only to a certain 

 extent; for if you had 1000 colonies and they were all weak in bees, so 

 they would give you no surplus, they would not be worth as much as one 

 good strong colony that would give you 200 or 300 pounds of honey. 



Several years ago one of my sons bought nine colonies of bees in 

 common box hives, about the first of June. He brought them home and 

 transferred them at once to movable-frame hives, and in about three 

 weeks divided them, making 20 colonies of the 9 he bought, using some 

 queen-cells I had on hand for his surplus colonies. He then attended to 

 those 20 colonies so they were all strong at the commencement of our 

 buckwheat harvest. I then lent him 20 hives of empty combs to put on 

 top of his colonies to extract from. He too 2849 lbs. of extracted 

 honey from those 9 colonies and their increase, and left them in good 

 condition so every one came out the next spring in fine order. 



Another son, the same season, took one colony, divided into three, 

 and received 347 lbs. of extracted honey. They also came through the 

 following winter in good condition. I speak of these cases simply to 

 show that it is not necessary to keep hundreds of colonies in order to 

 get a little honey. If you will only keep strong colonies and give them 

 the best of care you will soon find both pleasure and profit in bee- 

 keeping. 



Now in regard to the criticism on this way of making our increase. 

 I find that nearly all who have made a failure of the method have taken 

 colonies that had already made some preparations for swarming by hav- 

 ing eggs or larvae in their queen-cells. 



I received a few letters from parties who had made a failure of this 

 method in about the same way. Some had taken colonies that had 

 capped queen-cells in their hives at the time they put the queen in the 

 under hive, and, of course, they swarmed in a day or two. I can not 

 see that these failures are any proof of fault in the method. When we 

 work with our bees we must always use some discretion in such mat- 

 ters. If a colony is very strong in bees it certainly requires different 

 management from one rather weak. 



In conclusion I advise you to look over all the combs very carefully 

 for eggs or larvae in the queen-cells of the colonies you wish to divide. 

 If you find any it is sure proof of their intention of swarming; then 



