GRADING 89 



the health of the queen, and the shorter the time necessary 

 to get her to her destination, the better. 



What the Buyer has a Right to Expect. 



When a man sends his money for a queen in response to 

 an advertisement, he has a right to expect that no inferior 

 queens be sent, even though he buy untested stock. Some 

 breeders have the reputation of sending out mismated queens 

 that have been laying for a period long enough to show the fact, 

 as untested queens. While few breeders guarantee that un- 

 tested queens will be purely mated, to knowingly send out mis- 

 mated stock, to fill orders for untested queens, is certainly 

 dishonest. It is needless to say that no reputable breeder would 

 do so. The breeder who expects to establish a paying business 

 has no asset so valuable as the confidence of his customers, 

 and this is only secured by sending out good stock and standing 

 ready to be more than reasonable in making good any losses. 



The buyer has reason to expect that he will receive pure 

 queens, carefully reared; that the breeder shall maintain his 

 mating nuclei in localities as free as possible from impure stock, 

 and entirely free from disease. 



Grading. 



There is a great difference in the practice of different breed- 

 ers in the way queens are graded. Some advertise only three 

 grades, untested, tested and select tested queens. Others 

 make five or more grades, adding select-untested queens and 

 breeders. There should be some effort made to establish a 

 standard by which a buyer can tell in advance what he is likely 

 to get from an order for any one of these grades. 



In general, an untested queen is one which has been mated 

 and has been permitted to lay for a few days, but not long 

 enough for the emergence of the workers. Breeders who 

 make it a rule to send out all queens which are reared, regardless 

 of quality, are not likely to build up a permanent business. 



