2S2 QUEEN REARING. 



iiig is not oue of nature's waj's, yet we succeed in raising some 

 of our best fruit by grafting. But in grafting as in queen 

 rearing, much care is needed in order to bring forth the most 

 satisfactory results. 



The Apiarist who desires to make (]ueen rearing a specialty 

 should carefully read everj'thing of importance concerning the 

 subject. We recommend the special work of Doolittle, "Scien- 

 tific Queen Rearing," and the magnificently executed book of 

 Hutchinson "Advanced Bee Culture," of which extracts have 

 been given. Bulletin No. 55 of the Bureau of Entomology at 

 "Washmgton is a paper on the "Rearing of Queen Bees," by 

 E. F. Phillips and contains also some valuable information 

 concerning the different methods. 



532. Before we pass to the subject of introducing queens, 

 we cannot refrain from noticing the rapid progress of the 

 business of queen rearing in the last fifty years. The intro- 

 duction of brighter races has greatly increased the spread- 

 ing of apiarian science, and many facts which, years ago, 

 were known only to the few, now belong to the public domain. 



In breedmg the new races, let the novice remember that the 

 qualities he should seek to improve are, first, prolificness and 

 honey production ; second, peaceableness ; third, beauty. 



Since their introduction into this countiy, the Italians 

 have been bred too nmch for color, at the expense of their 

 other qualities. We have seen queens, that had been so in- 

 bred for color, that their mating with a black drone hardly 

 showed the hybridization of their progeny. 



This in-and-in breeding, for color, has even produced white- 

 eyed drones, stone blind, a degeneracy which would tend to 

 the extinction of the race. 



TxTRODurixc; Impregnated Queens. 



533. Great caution is needed in (jiving to bees a stranger 

 queen. Huber thus described the way in which a new queen 

 is usually received by a colony: 



