VEILS 
656 
any strangers have been put above them, 
and they all work in harmony together. 
At the outset mention was made of those 
who met with failure in following the 
method. As Mr. Alexander says, the diffi¬ 
culty doubtless arose from the fact that 
they failed to put brood along with the 
weak nucleus to hold the queen and her 
few bees, or else they did the work so 
clumsily that it stirred up both lots of 
bees, with the result that they came to¬ 
gether before they had the same scent. Mr. 
Alexander’s injunction is to put the bees 
together so carefully that the clusters do 
not really unite for some two days, at 
which time there is a peaceful union. The 
two queens go on laying, making one rous¬ 
ing colony, which can be divided. This 
makes two strong colonies where before 
there would have been only one, since the 
nucleus left to itself would have died. 
Where one desires to proceed with 
extreme caution he is advised to put a 
wire-cloth screen between the two lots of 
bees at the time of uniting, keeping it 
there for two or three days, after which its 
place is taken by a perforated zinc honey- 
board. In this cpnneetion it should be said 
that the wire-cloth screen should be 
mounted in a wooden frame about % inch 
thick. 
While this plan of uniting contemplates 
performing the act in early spring, some¬ 
thing can be done at it in the fall. Mr. 
Josiah Johnson, in a communication sent 
to Gleanings in Bee Culture, tells how he 
unites on the Alexander plan in the fall. 
Some have had trouble in following the 
Alexander plan of building up weak colo¬ 
nies. I think the trouble in many cases is 
due to rousing up the bees and getting them 
uneasy before the weak colony is put over 
the strong one. Then the two colonies have 
war for a while. I always use wire cloth 
between the two hives and never have any 
trouble from the lower colony going up and 
killing the bees in the upper hive. For 
some time I have wintered my weak colo¬ 
nies this way, on the summer stands. Last 
winter I had several weak colonies, and I 
put them all over strong colonies, making 
an entrance in the back with my knife thru 
the handhole of the upper hive. This should 
be just large enough to allow two or three 
bees to pass out -at a time. This is done 
on some cloudy day after very cold weather 
comes. 
Last year I had a weak colony of bees. 
There was just one frame of bees and a 
young queen. I put this frame of bees in 
with nine frames of honey, and put the 
frames in a hive and set it on top of one of 
the strongest colonies I had, and in Febru¬ 
ary they got pretty strong, and I left them 
on till April; and when I set them off I had 
two strong colonies. Josiah Johnson. 
Milan, Ill. 
See Building up Colonies, Spring 
Dwindling, and Spring Management. 
V 
VEILS. —When dealing with hybrids, 
Cyprians, or Holy Lands, a veil is a neces¬ 
sity. With Italians, Carniolans, or Cauca¬ 
sians it is not so important; still it is ad¬ 
visable to have one on the hat ready to pull 
down. Its use in any case gives the apiar¬ 
ist a sense of security that will enable him 
to work to much better advantage than he 
could if continually in fear of every cross 
bee that chanced to buzz near his eyes. 
The two objections that have been made 
against the use of veils are that they ob¬ 
struct the vision more or less, and interfere 
with the free circulation of air in hot 
weather; but these objections with a good 
veil are not very serious. Our best beemen, 
as a rule, wear a veil constantly when 
among the bees, and it is best to do so. 
The lightest veil is one made entirely 
of silk tulle, altho somewhat expensive. 
The material is so fine that a whole veil of 
it can be folded to go in a small vest- 
pocket. The author carries one of these 
constantly during the working season of 
