26 PRACTICAL QUEEN REARING 



It would seem to be possible to select gentle colonies which are 

 also good producers, and, at the same time, have other desirable 

 characteristics. 



Color should be a secondary consideration, although it is 

 desirable to have bees nicely marked. For a time, so much 

 attention was paid to color on the part of breeders of Italians, 

 that everything else was sacrificed in order to get yellow bees. 

 This was carried to such an extreme that a very general prejudice 

 has grown up against the Goldens. While it is quite true 

 that some strains of the Goldens are not desirable, being neither 

 hardy nor good honey gatherers, there are strains where proper 

 attention has been given to other points, which are very satis- 

 factory. In general, the Goldens have a bad reputation for 

 being ugly in disposition, yet at least one strain of Goldens 

 is very gentle. Very much depends upon the queen breeder, 

 and the care he uses in selecting his breeding stock. Some breed- 

 ers go so far as never to use a queen for a breeder, unless the 

 colony can be handled under normal conditions without smoke. 



The non-swarming propensity is also to be favored. In 

 many localities the honeyflows are short, and, if the colony 

 swarms at the beginning of the flow, there is little chance of 

 harvesting a good crop. Too much care cannot be used in 

 selecting the colonies to use for breeders. Much more attention 

 is given to selecting the queen from whose offspring the young 

 queens are to be reared, than is given to the parentage of the 

 drones. The confession must be made that few breeders 

 gi\e any special attention to this point, although it is equally 

 as important as far as practical results are concerned. 



Control of Drones. 



Since the queen is mated on the wing, and there is always 

 the possibility that the young queen will meet an inferior drone 

 from a distance, it is highly important that a queen breeder 

 go to a good deal of trouble to insure that all bees within a radius 

 of five miles of his breeding yards are requeened with pure 

 stock of the race which he is breeding. Unless he takes this 



