The Rearing of Queens 429 



chances of desirable matings by providing plenty of drones 

 of good stock and restricting undesirable drones. When 

 the workers begin to drive drones from the hives they may 

 be protected by putting them in a queenless colony, where 

 they will not be molested. 



Desirability of pure races. 



Above all, the desirability of pure races should be empha- 

 sized. It is a common belief that hybrids (usually crosses 

 of Italians and blacks) are good honey gatherers. Crosses 

 of other races are also recommended. The first cross is 

 often desirable from the standpoint of honey gathering but 

 it is better to breed from pure stock only, for the offspring 

 of a hybrid queen is exceptionally variable and it is rather a 

 matter of chance if good stock results. Presumably the 

 desirable characteristics of certain crosses might be fixed 

 by judicious and intelligent selection, but this is a problem 

 for a professional breeder and not for the honey producer or 

 even for the commercial queen breeder. 



Danger from inbreeding. 



This has been much overestimated in the discussions of 

 breeding in the bee journals. Inbreeding may accentuate 

 undesirable characters but it may likewise help to fix desir- 

 able characters, and it has been used with good results in 

 other lines of breeding. The commercial honey producer 

 need have little fear of harmful results, for if any signs of 

 degeneracy are observed it is easy at any time to introduce 

 new blood. 



