BREEDING TO PRODUCE A NON-SWARMING STRAIN 157 
colonies which do not swarm are usually the ones to store the big 
crops. At any rate the bee-keeper prefers to make increase at 
his convenience and not to be watching for swarms all summer. 
In a large apiary where there is no control of swarming there is 
little time for anything else than watching for swarms and getting 
them hived. 
Breeding to Produce a Non-Swarming Strain.—In spite of 
the fact that several writers, notably Dr. Bonney, take the posi- 
tion that the honey-bee cannot be improved because of the diffi- 
culty of controlling male parentage, much is to be hoped for 
along this line. Even now some progress is being made and a 
few leaders among the enthusiasts who are persistently following 
up the method of selecting the best honey producers among the 
non-swarming colonies and rearing queens only from them are 
getting results. It is true that progress is slow and that dis- 
couragements sometimes-are to be met, but some claim a notice- 
able decrease in the number of swarms as a result of such 
breeding for a series of years. 
Experiments looking toward the artificial mating of queens 
have been made from time to time with uncertain results. Once 
let a satisfactory method of accomplishing this be found and the 
great problem of breeding good bees is solved. As long as the 
queen must mate in the air according to the natural provision 
she may mate with any one of a thousand drones that chance to be 
flying at the time she takes her marriage flight. If a method 
of safe artificial fertilization can be devised this uncertainty 
is removed and drones from the best colonies can be selected. 
It will then be an easy matter to breed from stock showing any 
particularly desired trait and as good results can be expected 
as have resulted from similar efforts to improve live stock and 
poultry. The non-sitting breeds of fowls are pretty good evi- 
dence that it is possible to breed out even the strong natural 
instincts. Ina state of nature the sitting of the hen was essential 
to the perpetuation of the race. The invention of the incubator 
removed the necessity for sitting and the poultrymen proceeded 
