90 PRACTICAL QUEEN REARING 



No poor queens should be sent out in any case, except by special 

 understanding, and then not for breeding purposes. There 

 is a small demand for queens for scientific purposes, which can 

 be supplied with mismated or otherwise inferior stock without 

 injury to anyone. Such queens should never be sent to a bee- 

 keeper for introduction into normal colonies for honey pro- 

 duction. 



A tested queen is generally one which has been permitted 

 to lay until her workers begin to emerge, and thus by their 

 markings demonstrate the pure mating of their mother. She 

 should properly demonstrate other qualities also. Select- 

 tested and extra select-tested or choice select-tested queens are, of 

 course, queens which for one reason or another are more promis- 

 ing than the average of tested queens. Too many grades 

 offers a good chance for the breeder to get an extra price from 

 a buyer, without giving an equivalent in value. It is very true 

 that queens showing unusual traits are worth more than the gen- 

 eral run of queens, but it is difficult to grade the different de- 

 grees of behaviour into a half dozen different classes and always 

 give a uniform value. 



Virgin queens, are of course, unmated queens. While 

 there may be occasionally a good reason for the purchase of 

 virgins, as a rule the practice is not to be encouraged. The 

 difficulty of introducing a virgin after she is several days old 

 and consequent danger of loss, is one good reason why they 

 should not be shipped. The danger that they will become too 

 old for mating before a favorable opportunity is offered, is 

 another. The breeder who confines his business principally 

 to the sale of untested queens, and who gives good value for the 

 price asked, is the one who has the fewest complaints. 



Much dissatisfaction arises from the sale of breeding queens 

 at high prices. The buyer who pays five or ten dollars for a 

 breeding queen, will too often expect too much of her, and, 

 consequently, be disappointed. Then it often happens that a 

 queen old enough to demonstrate her value as a breeder, will be 

 superseded shortly after her introduction into a strange colony. 



