136 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 15 



Then it can be said that some of the queens which give good results 

 during their first season may be wholly unsatisfactory during their 

 second year. Of the queens from source I there was a much higher 

 proportion of replacement during the first season (almost six times) 

 than in source II, while during the second season there was 64% replace 

 ment in source I and 54% in source II. During the first season the 

 production of source I queens was somewhat lower than source II 

 queens, but during the second season the reverse was the case. 



The queens of sources III, IV and V were used to replace those 

 found unsatisfactory in sources I and II. 



Of these fall introduced queens (III, IV, and V) there was much 

 less replacement in general. The queens of source IV proved quite 

 unsatisfactory as is evidenced by the decidedly poor production. The 

 source VI queens were hardly satisfactory and 1 of the 2 was replaced. 

 During the first season of production there was a 33% total replace- 

 ment of the queens from these three sources. During the second 

 season after replacement one year there was an average of 59% replace- 

 ment of source I and II queens. The replacement of queens is there- 

 fore not nearly as assuring as one would wish since it has been found 

 necessary to replace among the queens used for replacing unsatisfactory 

 colonies. 



The queens of each source were of the comm.ercial quality known 

 as "Untested " The definition for this grade of queen is reasonably 

 well understood. The customary price received for such queens was 

 $1.25 each or $15 per dozen. On this basis the queens worth retaining 

 after loss of introduction in source I represented a cost of $2.50 each, 

 source IV cost $5.00 each and source V cost $7.50. This cost is entirely 

 too high and too variable. 



The very poor results obtained in the introduction of queens in source 

 V would seem, to point clearly to the fact that requeening so late in the 

 fall is wholly undesirable. At this time there is seldom any honey 

 flow and the early preparations for winter are under way b}^ the colony. 

 In view of the experience during the 1921 season it seems quite probable 

 that the date of introduction for source III (August 11) is even too 

 late for certain results each year. 



In the case of uncertain queens how soon should they be replaced by 

 another queen? During the season of 1920 all of the queens had an 

 opportunity to prove their quality throughout the entire honey flow. 

 Even before the honey flow it was possible to say that certain queens 

 were not doing as well as others or even as well as the average of the 

 yard. However, these queens were given assistance in one way and 



