ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 67 
as they hatch, he might have choice queens without much expense 
except for a part of his time, and a certain per cent of his surplus. 
There is quite a difference of opinion as to the necessary amount of 
bees it requires to rear choice cells and queens. Some claim it can 
be done with but few bees; others want strong colonies to produce 
choice cells. I know we could never rear queens that would suit us 
unless we used so many bees in rearing our cells that it would make 
a sad inroad on our surplus honey. 
The most common and the worst mistake that can be made in 
rearing queens is saving the natural cells and virgin queens from col- 
onies that have cast natural swarms. I have heard this method reo 
ommended by men who were considered quite good authority, and it 
seemed as if I could not keep still and listen to them. We spend 
valuable time at our conventions in discussing various ways for pre 
venting natural swarming, and we frequently see long articles in our 
journals from noted writers recommending certain methods to prevent 
it. Almost daily during the summer season we see bad results in our 
apiaries from excessive swarming, and then so many will do the very 
thing of all things that will perpetuate the desire to swarm, by saving 
cells and virgins from the colonies that are the first to swarm; and 
invariably when this objectionable method has been practiced a few 
years a strain of bees will be developed that is ready to swarm both 
in season and out of season. Nor is this all; for a great step back- 
ward is taken, and the bees from the first will begin to degenerate, and 
part of their yellow color will be lost; and the bees themselves being 
crosser and more irritable, they fail to gather as much surplus, and 
they become more nervous in winter. In a few years the apiary will 
have degenerated until it is of but little value. It must then be built 
up again with good stock. 
In view of these facts do not take such a step backward as will 
bring only loss, trouble, and disappointment. When a colony has many 
valuable traits, send its queen to your queen-breeder, and write him, 
describing all those good points, and request him to rear the queens 
from her unless he may have a still better breeding-queen. In this 
way the choicest of queens may be reared from the best stock, and 
improvement can be made along the lines most desired. 
As I look back I find that the seasons when we received our largest 
surplus have been, without a single exception, the ones following the 
year when we reared our queens from some special queen whose colony 
had given us an unusual amount of surplus the previous summer. It 
reyulres only four or five years of careful selection to make a great 
change in bees in their honey-gathering qualities, and in their dispo- 
sition, until they seem like a different race of bees. The color is one 
of the quickest of all points to show improvement, and the tendency 
to swarm can be reduced to a surprising extent; but special care must 
be taken to select the best standard. Nor is this all. The drone- 
mothers must be just as choice as the queen-mothers. You must rear 
