88 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 



the fall crop. The flavor, quality and color of the honeys of 

 these two seasons being very distinct, it is necessary to keep 

 the crops separate. Then also there is sometimes quite a dearth 

 between the two, during which the unsupplied swarms must be 

 looked after, just as we do in spring. 



Requeening 



It is usually during this short season that we replace the 

 queens which have passed their period of usefulness. Some peo- 

 ple change the queens in their hives every season. We believe 

 that a queen is better in her second year than in her first. Ex- 

 ception must be made, however, with the queens that are in- 

 ferior, by positive test, in their prolificness or in the generation 

 which they produce. Such queens should be replaced as soon as 

 possible. 



We allow good queens to become fully two years old before 

 we think of removing them. The removal and replacing with 

 young queens is done with stock purchased from queen-breeders 

 of known integrity, whose breeding stock is known to us and 

 approved as to purity and prolificness. 



Rearing one's own queens, from known stock of good honey- 

 producing qualities, is certainly the very best way, even though 

 a beekeeper in the North may find it cheaper in dollars and 

 cents to buy the queens already reared, from a Southern State, 

 where the season lasts longer and bees are not so valuable for 

 honey production. 



The advantage of rearing our own queens is that we know 

 exactly what the parentage is, as far as the mother is concerned 

 at least, and if we use a little diplomacy, it is often easy to Ital- 

 ianize our neighbors' bees to secure pure matings. We have 

 repeatedly, in bygone years, Italianized colonies for neighboring 

 bee men, at one dollar per colony, taking all the trouble upon 

 ourselves. We found that it paid us in the long run, as we secured 

 more pure matings; since the neighbors are not so careful as 

 we are in doing away with drone-combs and rear more drones 

 than we do. This is just a suggestion to the careful beekeeper. 



