232 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



cellent queens, and many of them, by the Alley plan, and 

 by the Doolittle cell-cup plan, together with its modifica- 

 tions by Pridgen and others. I think I was the first one 

 to report rearing a queen in a colony having a laying 

 queen ; and I have reared them in stories under as well as 

 over the story having the laying queen. Neither is it ab- 

 solutely necessary to have a queen-excluder between the 

 stories. In lieu of an excluder I have used a cloth with 

 room for passage at the corners. Neither excluder nor 

 cloth is absolutely necessary ; distance is enough. That 

 first reported case was on this wise : 



Upon a hive containing a colony had been piled four 

 stories of empty combs for safe keeping. To make sure 

 that the bees would not neglect the care of the most dis- 

 tant combs,.! put a frame of brood in the upper story. A 

 few weeks later I found a laying queen in the upper story 

 with the old queen still below. A hole in the upper story 

 had allowed the flight of the young queen without in- 

 vading the domains of her mother. For those who pro- 

 duce extracted honey this plan might be used to advan- 

 tage. 



UNQUEENING COLONY TO START CELLS. 



I have reared good queens by the old and simple 

 plan of taking away the queen of a strong colony. Of 

 course this must be a choice queen. Previous to the re- 

 moval of the queen the colony is strengthened. Frames 

 of well-advanced brood are from time to time given from 

 other colonies until it has two — perhaps three — stories 

 of brood. None of this brood, however, is given less 

 than five or six days before the removal of the queen. 

 The queen is taken with two frames of brood and ad- 

 hering bees and put on a new stand in an empty hive, an 

 empty comb and one with some honey being added. 



