THE AMEBIC AN APICULTURIST. 



197 



produce a poor specimen of that 

 race, and this can onl}' be known by 

 applying certain tests, which tests 

 will cover a long period of time. 



The Italian bee has stood, and 

 stood well, the many tests it has 

 been called upon in the past to en- 

 dure ; we know its qualities and to a 

 certain extent its capabilities ; can 

 we then do better than to continue 

 breeding it, and b}'^ proper selec- 

 tions, endeavor to rear from it 

 the bee of the future ? And are 

 we not working in a more reasona- 

 ble direction in doing this, than 

 we are by attempting to soar into 

 the realms of the unknown, and 

 the almost unknowable? I have 

 no desire to prevent expansion in 

 an}^ direction, and I hope that ex- 

 periments in ever}' feasible direc- 

 tion will be made, till the "coming 

 bee" is positively assured to us ; 

 but I do believe that when we get 

 the " coming bee," the bee of the 

 future, the queen of them all, we 

 shall get it not from a cross of any 

 of the races now known, but by 

 selecting from the best of our 

 thoroughl}' tried, well proved, and 

 never-found-wanting Italians. 



Foxboro, 3Iass., August, 1884. 



Q UEEN-REARIXG 



IN THE FALL OF THE 



YEAR. 



By R. F. HOLTEKMAN. 



It is universally admitted that 

 rearing queens under the swarming 

 impulse is, if not an advantage, at 

 least not accompanied by loss. 



The question now arises how to 

 create that impulse in the most 

 profitable manner. The Holy 

 Land bees will give us more queen 

 cells ; therefore let us aim at having 

 them as workers. Next, we may 

 prefer rearing our queens from 

 some other colony, either Italians, 

 or a mixture which may be partic- 

 ularly energetic. Let us take a 

 colony of Holy Lands or their 

 crosses and the colony from which 

 we wish to rear queens, and ex- 

 change queens, introducing them in 

 the usual manner ; now this colony 

 should require very little to create 

 the swarming impulse, which little 

 can be effected by taking the combs 

 from another colony having brood 

 just hatching, and exchanging 

 with younger brood in the queen- 

 rearing colon}', also by shaking 

 bees in front and some distance 

 from the queen-rearing colony. 

 Having previously partially closed 

 the hive, young bees only will be 

 admitted. Or, perhaps as well, we 

 can create this swarming impulse 

 by uncapping the honey in the hive 

 and giving them generous, but not 

 too plentiful feed at night, one- 

 half to one pound would be suffi- 

 cient at a time ; our new queen will 

 laj' the eggs, and our bees that ap- 

 pear so energetic in cell-building 

 do the labor. Of course it is un- 

 necessary to remind here, except 

 for the beginner, that this season 

 most of the drones are being and 

 have been killed off by colonies 

 having queens. Of course as long as 

 the swarming impulse is kept up, 

 the drones will be unmolested in a 

 colony ; but to make sure it is well 



