ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 79 



an unlimited amount of capital, are fast driving the less fortunate out 

 of business, and I can not see how bee-keeping can be an exception. 



When I was a boy a large part of our farmers kept a few colonies; 

 but now we seldom see any bees through the country except in large 

 apiaries. And the same change will continue to go on until there will 

 be comparatively few men engaged in the business, and these few will 

 be located in the exceptionally good locations, keeping their thousands 

 of colonies, and having the best of every thing connected with bee- 

 keeping that money can buy; and they will sell their surplus at whole- 

 sale to reliable parties, giving them three or four months' time if they 

 wish, which often makes quite a difference in the price favoring the 

 producer. There are many young men now starting in the business 

 who will in time drop out; but some will continue, and they are the 

 ones who will be the honey-producers of the future. They will first 

 work for men having had a long experience until they have a practical 

 knowledge of bee-keeping. Here, among other things, they will learn 

 the value and necessity of a good location. To these they will naturally 

 go, where, with their practical knowledge of the business, they can 

 produce honey at half the cost that the inexperienced man can in an 

 ordinary location. 



May, 1908. 



THE AGE OF DRONES ; THE TWO-QUEEN SYSTEM. 



In reference to the age of the drones, I will say that, in natural 

 swarming, we usually find the drone comb of a hive well filled with 

 brood capped, or about ready to cap, when the eggs are laid in the 

 queen-cells. This would show that in nature the greater number of 

 drones would hatch about the same time as the young queens or a few 

 days sooner. For our early queens, then, we use eggs from our breed- 

 ing-queen as soon as we find drone brood capped. 



As to the number of our natural swarms, that depends much on the 

 season, also on the length of time from one extracting to another. In 

 our apiary about six per cent of the colonies cast natural swarms. 



In regard to keeping two or more laying queens in a colony at 

 the same time, and its effect on their swarming, according to our ex- 

 perience so far, it has wholly prevented It, as we have never yet had 

 a colony attempt to swarm that contained two or more laying queens 

 where each had free access to all parts of the hive. 



We are now wintering a colony with seven two-year-old queens in it, 

 all loose in the cluster of bees. We saw and counted the queens a few 

 days before putting our bees in the cellar; and up to date, Jan. 30, we 

 have not found any dead queens under the cluster of that colony. 



HOW LABGB NTJMBEBS OF QUEENS ABE INTEODUCED. 



Another question I wish to answer, which many are inquiring 

 about, is how we introduce the 300 or 400 queens every year which our 



