12 Farmers’ Bulletin 1222. 
wired to strengthen the combs. - Detailed directions for arranging 
the sheets of foundation in the frames and for wiring are given in 
Farmers’ Bulletin 447 and in still greater detail in the books 
on beekeeping. Even when full sheets of worker foundation are 
used, there will be a tendency for the foundation or the combs to 
sag, leaving several rows of imperfectly formed cells at the top of 
the frame. The beekeeper should constantly sort out imperfect 
combs and use them for the supers. Extra care should be exercised 
to see that only perfect combs are placed in the lower one of the two 
hive-bodies during the winter, in order that the queen may pass 
easily from the second to the first story during the period of brood- 
rearing previous to the time of unpacking. 
As has been stated, most of the bees of this region are of the in- 
ferior German or black stock, and this race should be eliminated as 
rapidly as possible. It has no desirable quality, except that the 
capping on the combs is whiter as a rule than that made by Italian 
bees. This is not a matter of moment in the production of either 
extracted honey or bulk comb-honey. _It is common to hear bee- 
keepers of this region state that their bees are Italians, this opinion 
being based on the common supposition that any bee which shows 
the least yellow color is Italian. It is, however, rare to find good 
Italian stock in this region, and it is safe to recommend to all bee- 
keepers that they get new blood in their apiaries unless this has been 
done within a few years. The German queens of this region are not 
prolific and are unable to get the colony strength up rapidly, and, 
as has been shown, this is the most important step in preparation for 
the gathering of a crop of honey from the tulip-tree. It would pay 
the better beekeepers of this region to buy young queens every year 
if there were no other way to get young stock of the Italian race, 
in order to have colonies of the right strength. This is not neces- 
sary, for the beekeeper can rear his own queens as needed, after he 
becomes familiar with the work. It is, of course, necessary in almost 
every apiary to buy queens from queen-breeders in order to get bet- 
ter stock. The best plan is to buy several untested queens from each 
of several breeders, to select as a breeding queen the best one from 
among these, as indicated by the honey-crop, and then to rear one’s 
own queens. No one queen-breeder can be recommended as better 
than any others and the best plan is to buy from queen-breeders 
who have been in the business long enough to have a well-defined 
strain and have the skill necessary to select and raise good stock. 
The names and addresses of queen-breeders may be obtained from 
advertisements in the journals devoted to beekeeping. 
