380 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



honey so that when a fresh egg is put into it the egg will float, leav- 

 ing above the liquid a spot about as big as a silver dime. Then treat 

 as all good housewives know how, by keeping it where the sun can 

 shine on it or in a warm place, with a chance for the air to get to it 

 freely without a chance for iiies to get in. 



IMPROVEMENT OF STOCK. 



Every farmer knows that there is a great difference in his cows, 

 hens, etc., but there is too often a feeling that all bees are alike, 

 and that bee-keeping is all a matter of luck anyway. If you observe 

 closely, you will find that one colony of bees may give you good 

 returns, while another sitting beside it does nothing in the surplus 

 chamber. Bees are by no means all alike. They differ in disposi- 

 tion, temper, industry, and in other ways. It is W'Orth while for 

 you to have the best. Fortunately the change from poor to good 

 stock may be made more rapidly than with other kinds of stock, 

 and at less expense. By paying out a dollar or two for a queen, 

 you may change a colony of poorest black bees to Italians. All 

 you need to do is to send off your order to a reliable queen-breeder, 

 such as advertise in our agricultural pajjers, and the queen will 

 come by mail, with directions for introducing which you can easily 

 follow. As a worker-bee only lives about six weeks in the busy 

 season, and as the new queen will be laying from one to three thou- 

 sand eggs in a day, you will see that if you get an Italian queen into 

 a colony it will not be a great while until all the bees in the hive 

 are Italian. 



Even if you do not cnange from one kind of bees to another, it 

 is generally a matter of advantage to introduce fresh blood occa- 

 sionally. In any case, whether you get fresh stock from outside or 

 not, whether your bees are Italians, blacks or hybrids, there is always 

 something to be done in the way of improving your stock, so long 

 as anj- one of your colonies is better than any other. 



ITALIANIZING. 



The probability is that you will want Italian bees, if your bees 

 are not already Italian. The greater industry of Italian bees, and 

 the greater amount of honey they will store in the course of the 

 season, together with the fact that with Italian bees you need 

 have little fear of wax-worms or moths in the hive, are sufficient 

 reasons for preferring them. 



For two dollars or so you can buy a tested queen. That means 

 a queen reared from an Italian mother, the young queen having 

 been kept until young workers have hatched out from her eggs, and 



