30 THE REARING OF QUEEN BEES. 



queens. The mere fact that mating takes place in the air, out of the 

 control of the bee keeper, is no reason wh}^ care should not be taken 

 in the selection of drones which are allowed to fly in the yard. When 

 breeding any race, Italians for example, it is not enough that all the 

 drones be Italians; they should be selected as to honey production of 

 the workers, proliflcness of the queen, or an}^ other quality which is 

 considered in choosing a breeding queen. 



Selection of drones may be accomplished by the use of drone traps 

 or by cutting out drone comb. For absolute safety the drone trap is 

 preferable, since some drone brood may escape observation. When 

 most colonies are requeened every season, only queens of breeding 

 value should be kept, since old queens produce larger numbers of 

 drones. 



