SEES AND BEE CULTURE. 1153 



of the desired race into each colony, when presto the work is 

 done. Again, many find in queen rearing for market a profita- 

 ble and pleasant employment. Thus it is necessary to know 

 how to rear good queens. 



To secure queens of the greatest excellence, they should be 

 fed as queens from the first, and not fed as worker larvae for 

 one, two, or three days, and then changed to queens. Again, 

 they should be reared in large, vigorous colonies, that they may 

 surely be fed well. We have only to remember that it is only 

 quantity and quality of food that accelerates the development 

 and produces a queen to realize the value of this position. If, 

 however, it is ever considered desirable to rear queens from the 

 start in small colonies, we can make it less objectionable by giv- 

 ing little or no other brood to this colony, so that all effort can 

 be concentrated on the developing queens. Again, queens will 

 be best if reared when the bees are in the height of their ac- 

 tivity, during an ample harvest. At such times all work of the 

 hive is pushed with unwonted activity, and so the inchoate 

 queens get better treatment. By stimulative feeding as de- 

 scribed in the last article, the apiarist may secure fairly good 

 queens at other seasons than when the bees are rushing the nec- 

 tar from bloom to hive. 



The best queens are doubtless those that come from cells 

 started by the bees in preparation for natural swarming. On 

 such the young apiarist may well depend till wider experience 

 teaches him the way to success by a still more artificial method. 

 By feeding quite early in the spring, at least five weeks before 

 fruit bloom, to stimulate, and by adding brood from other colo- 

 nies, as they can spare it, the best colony in the apiary may be 

 early made so strong that at the very dawn of the season they 

 will have drones flying, and will have formed queen cells in 

 which the queen will lay eggs. Thus we start out with all 

 conditions most favorable. Besides, we get queens before there 

 are any drones except from this or these best colonies, and so 

 are pretty sure of pure fertilization with but little care. 



The regular breeder, or he that wishes to rear queens at all 

 times in a season, can not depend on queen cells naturally 



