ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 69 



we slide on a piece of folded tin so It makes a shoulder for the little 

 frame to hang on. When we wish we can put a frame of these little 

 frames in any standard hive, and have them filled with brood or 

 honey; then the little frames can be put Into weak nuclei If we wish, 

 and at the close of the season these small combs with their bees, 

 brood, and honey, can all be utilized in uniting with other colonies. 

 I am sure that, if you will try this way of rearing surplus queens 

 another season, you will be surprised to see how easy it Is to have 

 choice young queens on hand at a small expense, ever ready to use 

 where occasion may require. If you expect to make a success of bee- 

 keeping you must be on the watch to take advantage of all these little 

 things. 



December, 1906. 



SUPERSEDING OUR OLD QUEENS. 



DO NOT LET THE BEES DECffiE AS TO THE TIME FOE DOING THIS. 



To supersede our queens when two years old, or to leave it for the 

 bees to attend to, is a question of far more Importance than many 

 realize, and one upon which I very decidedly differ with some of our 

 best bee-keepers. Last fall we had 107 queens in our apiary that were 

 2% years old. Therefore for many years we have superseded all our 

 queens at 2 years of age; but as a part of these queens were some we had 

 bought, and were of an extra good strain, their hives being well filled 

 with honey, and as some writers on the subject had claimed that the 

 bees knew better than we when to supersede their queens, I thought 

 I would test this matter thoroughly on a large scale, even if it cost 

 me the 107 colonies to do so. 



THE BESULT OF THE BXPBEIMENT. 



We put our bees in the cellar about the middle of November. These 

 colonies, with their queens 2i/^ years old, were put in with the other 

 colonies here and there all through the lot, and had exactly the same 

 chance as those with younger queens. When we took them from the 

 cellar about the middle of April we found only eleven that had super- 

 seded their queens; and it had been done so late in the fall that six 

 were drone-layers, and the other five were about as weak in bees as 

 those with the old queen; and of the remaining 96, 3 were fairly good, 26 

 were very weak in bees, and the other 67 were dead. 



In looking over our bees about Sept. 1 we noticed that these old 

 queens had all stopped laying, and had but little brood compared with 

 the young queens. This fact, undoubtedly, had much to do with the 

 weak condition of the few that survived the winter. 



Of the other 603 colonies In the same cellar, that had queens 6 

 months old and 1% years old, only 7 were lost. 



Now, my friends, can any of you say that It does not pay to keep 

 track of the age of your queens, and attend to superseding them your- 



