160 BOAKL) OF AOItlCULTUllE. [Pub. Doc. 



Purchasing Queens. 

 Queens may be purchased from early spring (in the south) to late 

 fall. Usually Massachusetts beekeepers can secure stock raised in 

 the State, there being at least four commercial queen rearers. Queens 

 so secured are mated, and, consequently, introduce new blood into 

 the apiary. They are transported by mail in a small wooden cage 

 which also serves as an introducing cage. Directions accompany 

 each queen. Their trade classification is as follows : " Untested ; " 

 a mated queen but unproved, her progeny not having been matured, 

 " Tested ; " the purity of the mating of this queen has been proved 

 by her progeny. " Select tested ; " these queens are usually older, 

 and have proved themselves prolific, truly mated, etc. " Breeding 

 queen;" such queens are carefully selected for superiority and char- 

 acters worthy of being propagated. The cost of queens increases 

 proportionally to this classification. 



Increase, 

 Naturally, increase and dissemination of the species are accom- 

 plished by means of swarming, yet it is no longer considered an index 

 of prosperity. In this thrilling event, the wildest and most exciting 

 situation in all beekeeping, the parent stock, 20,000 strong, issues 

 from the hive to form a new colony, leaving the brood and emerging 

 bees, with queen cells and honey, behind, to continue the old one. 

 The act of flying forth, the issuing of the bees with their parent 

 queen, is called swarming. Eventually they find a new location and 

 establish their new home. Thus one stock produces two, these two 

 may give two more, and so the apiary grows. 



Artificial or Controlled Increase. 



The old way of securing more colonies was based precisely u]ion 

 this natural behavior, — swarming. The beekeeper trusted to luck 

 that his bees would swarm and not fly away. But experience has 

 shown it uncertain. Usually the parent colony yielded little or no 

 honey the year that it swarmed. Later, beekeepei-s commenced to 

 divide their colonies, brood and bees, into two or more parts or nuclei, 

 supplying each division with a queen or allowing the bees to rear 

 and mate one. Gradually these small colonies or nuclei strengthen 

 imtil fall, when they should become full size. But this means usually 

 affords merely increase. Moreover, these nuclei require considerable 

 attention, nursing and feeding, which means little economy. 



The modern methods of increase are based on an effort to keep 

 sh'ong both the old and the new colony, without the sacrifice of the 

 honey harvest. 



