8 THE REAEING OF QUEEN BEES. 



the increase is made, the new colony will gain about three weeks in 

 brood production over a colony which has to produce its own queen. 



The question which arises in the mind of every bee keeper is: Will 

 it pay me to rear my own queens^ Very good untested queens can 

 now be purchased for $1, or even less, it is true; but where a large 

 apiary is to be requeened, this amount, though small for one colony, 

 reaches considerable size when multiplied by a few score; and if this 

 amount can be saved, and the total net receipts of each colony corre- 

 spondmgly increased with comparative!}^ little labor, it would seem 

 folly for the bee keeper to persist in purchasing queens. 



It will of course be necessary for the average bee keeper to buy 

 some queens. The selection of fine strains of stock must be left to 

 the professional queen breeder in most cases, and it will be well to buy 

 the breeding stock from some such person. Where no particular 

 improved strain of stock is desired, it may pay the extensive bee 

 keeper to buy an imported queen to be used as a breeder. In the case 

 of Italian bees this does not seem necessary, for very superior stock 

 is reared in the United States, and queen bees of the Italian variety 

 are actually shipped from this country to Italy to be used as breeders. 

 In Carniolan, Cyprian, and other races not so much selection has been 

 carried on in this country, and in consequence the desirability of 

 importations is greater in order to insure purity of stock. 



Few bee keepers are so situated that they can with profit rear their 

 own breeding stock. It is the rule in some apiaries to choose the 

 queen from the colony with the best honey record as the breeder for 

 the following year, but this, while seemingly good policy, leads to 

 curious errors. Unless it is certain that the queen is of pure stock or 

 of a fixed cross she should not be used, for it is a well-known fact that 

 when a first cross is used as a breeder the resulting offspring are most 

 variable. 



It is the purpose of this bulletin to outline a plan for breeding 

 queens in the home apiary which it is believed can be used with the 

 minimum of labor and expense, one with which good results have 

 already been obtained. Queen rearing can not be carried on without 

 careful attention, but the methods are not, as many believe, so compli- 

 cated as to make it impossible for the honey producer to afford the 

 time. The beginner in bee keeping can scarcely expect to rear good 

 queens during the first year, and no one can hope to do so until he 

 becomes well acquainted with the habits of bees. It is impossible to 

 give directions minute enough to cover every phase of the subject, and 

 so that every emergency will be foreseen: a great deal must necessarily 

 be left to the common sense and experience of the apiarist. The out- 

 line herein given, however, ought to be sufficient for anyone who has 

 had one year's careful work with bees. 



