206 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



disguised because of our ignorance.) I dare say here is where Dr. 

 Miller "falls down" in building up a non-swarming strain, and where 

 we all do in trying to improve our bees. 



SETTING PARTHENOGENESIS ASIDE! 



Now just as soon as our hybrid queen is laying in colony A, 

 we will give her two frames of drone comb and at the proper time 

 remove the black queen from colony B, letting this colony mature 

 ten queen cells to be distributed to as many nuclei to be mated with 

 drones from hybrid queen in A. 



Remember, these drones are pure Italians, capable of trans- 

 mitting all the working traits and blood of the Italian queen that 

 gave us the original workers that stored 200 pounds, etc. Also, the 

 same holds good with the ten black virgins, in regard to blood, etc., 

 of colony B, that we mate to these drones, giving us ten nuclei 

 whose queens positively have only the blood of the original two, 

 colony A and B, combined. 



Colony A and B should now be broken up and their queens 

 destroyed. Of course, the results would be the same if both colonies 

 had been Italians. 



The real work of building up a good working strain of bees 

 commences at this point and the bee-keeper that undertakes it 

 should be thoroughly conversant with authoritative work on breed- 

 ing and inbreeding. 



HOW TO IN-BREED BEES. 



\\"e w'ill use one colony this time. No. 1, with pure Italian 

 queens. Remove the queen as soon as practical, taking good care 

 of her, allowing the now queenless colony to mature one queen cell 

 (more, of course, etc.) to be placed in nucleus to mate with any 

 kind of a drone — it matters not — promptly returning the queen to 

 the hive as soon as we remove the qtieen cells to nucleus, which we 

 will call queen and hive No. 2. Now, we want drones, drones quick, 

 from this newly mated queen No. 2, and if you think this a small 

 problem, just try it! Could have made a drone layer of her in the 

 beginning, but some question the advisability of this; so we will 

 try the only plan I know — a plan I do not believe can be improved 

 for the purpose it was intended, rapid increase, etc., or forcing a 

 newly mated queen to lay drone eggs: 



Prepare a hive by placing a frame of empty worker comb or 

 foundation in the center, a frame of hatching brood on each side, 

 and on each side of hatching" brood a division board feeder, one 

 filled with syrup and the other with damp sugar, placing our queen 

 No. 2 and bees into this prepared hive. As soon as the middle 

 frame is full of eggs and larvae, remove, placing another in its place. 



