80 ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 



system of management requires. This is one of the knottiest of ques- 

 tions, and one that has cost bee-keepers thousands of valuable queens. 

 It has cost us so many that we now seldom try to introduce a queen 

 into a full colony. We would much rather have our young queens 

 hatch in what would be considered a small colony, and then as soon as 

 she commences to lay build it up in two or three days into a good 

 strong colony by giving them combs of hatching brood. In this way 

 we never lose a queen, whereas by the introducing method many times 

 the strange queen will be allowed to live only until she has laid eggs 

 four or five days, and the bees begin to have plenty of larva to rear 

 one from; then they will kill their queen and rear a young one in her 

 place. We have lost hundreds of valuable queens in just this way, 

 so for several years we have not introduced many queens into full 

 colonies except when we have a surplus that we hardly know what to 

 do with. 



I think the day is not far distant when a large per cent of the 

 queens that are bought from queen-breeders will be bought in a nucleus, 

 and then built up into strong colonies by the purchaser. This is a fine 

 way to make increase, and at the same time procure choice queens 

 and avoid all loss and trouble in introducing. I think 100 good thre'e- 

 comb nuclei purchased in May, and properly cared for, will furnish 

 enough extracted honey during the season to pay their first cost. 



If not convenient to get your queens in a nucleus, then Introduce 

 them into small colonies that have no uncapped brood, especially if 

 the queen Is a valuable one. 



I think queen-breeders are often wrongfully accused of sending out 

 hybrid queens when the queen they sent was all right; but shortly after 

 she commenced to lay she was superseded by a young one reared from 

 her brood, which was mismated, and the purchaser never knew that 

 the queen he bought was killed shortly after she commenced to lay. 



June, 1906. 



PLURALITY OF QUEENS IN ONE HIVE. 



IS IT PEACTICAI, TO HAVE TWO OB MOKE IN ONE COLONY DUBING THE STTMMEB 



SEASON? 



Yes, I think it is. With the ever pressing desire to increase our 

 surplus we are anxiously looking for new methods whereby we can 

 secure strong full colonies early in the season in order to take ad- 

 vantage of any flow of nectar that may come. This has caused us 

 to do some experimenting along the line of keeping two or more laying 

 queens in one colony. For several years we have known that laying 

 queens will never sting each other if they can possibly get away from 

 one another. This fact caused us to try some experiments along this 

 line, with the following results: 



First, a great increase in the amount of brood was noticed in these 

 hives; in fact, they were so full of brood that but few cells were left 



