58 



BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 



Fig. 21. Queen mating nuclei in Southwest Texas. 



There are many beekeepers in this region, who devote much 

 or all of their time to the production of queen bees, like Ben G. 

 and John M. Davis, of Tennessee. With a large home apiary 

 for a mating yard and several outyards from which to draw 

 bees for mating nuclei, swarm prevention in the outyards loses 

 its significance and an interesting and profitable business resul ts. 

 Probably one of the first ambitions of most beginners in bee- 

 keeping is to be a breeder of queen bees. That there are fewer 

 beekeepers really fitted for this work than any other phase of 

 beekeeping, is the opinion of the author. The production of 

 good queen bees, reared in strong colonies and mated in nuclei 

 strong enough to be worthy of the name, is a science by itself. 

 Like the small combless package for shipping bees, one of the 

 greatest hindrances to successful queen rearing has been the 

 early advocacy of the "baby" nuclei. Every queen breeder 

 whose business is growing in the South, and whose yards have 

 been visited by the author, is leaning more strongly toward ihe 

 use of larger queen mating nuclei each year. Some even have 

 gone to the extreme of using four and five full Hoffman frame 

 nuclei. Needless to say this trend has improved the quality of 

 the queens. 



