How to Breed First-Class Queens. 235 
and so they are fed the royal pabulum from the first. Thus 
we have met every possible requisite to secure the most 
superior queens. As we removed all the brood the nurse 
bees will have plenty of time and be sure to care well for 
these young queens. By removal of the queen we also 
secure a large number of cells, while if we waited for the 
bees to start the cells preparatory to natural swarming, in 
which case we secure the two desirable conditions named 
above, we shall probably fail to secure so many cells, and 
may have to wait longer than we can afford. 
Even the apiarist who keeps black bees and desires no 
others, or who has only pure Italians, will still find that it 
pays to practice this selection, for as with the poultry fancier, 
or the breeder of our larger domestic animals, the apiarist is 
ever observing some individuals of marked superiority, and 
he who carefully selects such queens to breed from, will 
be the one whose profits will make him rejoice, and whose 
apiary will be worthy of all commendation. It occurs to 
me that in this matter of careful selection and improve- 
ment of our bees by breeding, rests our greatest opportu- 
nity to advance the art of bee-keeping. As will be patent 
to all, by the above process we exercise a care in breeding 
which is not surpassed by the best breeders of horses and 
cattle, and which no wise apiarist will ever neglect. Nor 
do I believe that Vogel can be correct in thinking that 
drones give invariably one set of character and the queens 
the others. This is contrary to all experience in breeding 
larger animals. 
It is often urged, and I think with truth, that we shall 
secure better queens if we wait for the queen-cells to be 
started naturally by the bees, under the swarming impulse; 
and by early feeding and adding brood from other colonies 
we can hasten this period; yet, if we feed to stimulate, 
whenever the bees are not storing, and keep the colony 
redundant in bees of all ages by aiding plenty of capped 
brood from other colonies, we shall find that our queens 
are little, if any, inferior, even if their production is hast- 
ened by removal of a queen from the hive. If these direc- 
tions are closely followed, there will be little brood for the 
bees to feed, and the quecn-cells will not suffer neglect, 
