How to Breed First- Class Queens, 235 



■and so they are fed the royal pabulum from the first. Thus 

 we have met every possible requisite to secure the most 

 superior queens. As we removed all the brood the nurse 

 bees will have plenty of time and be sure to care well for 

 these young queens. By removal of the queen we also 

 secure a large number of cells, while if we waited for the 

 bees to start the cells preparatory to natural swarming, in 

 which case we secure the two desirable conditions named 

 above, we shall probably fail to secure so many cells, and 

 may have to wait longer than we can afford. 



Even the apiarist who keeps black bees and desires no 

 others, or who has only pure Italians, will still find that it 

 pays to practice this selection,f or as with the poultry fancier, 

 or the breeder of our larger-domestic animals, the apiarist is 

 ever observing some individuals of marked superiority, and 

 he who cai^efully selects such queens to breed from, will 

 be the one whose profits will make him rejoice, and whose 

 apiary will be worthy of all commendation. It occurs to 

 me that in this matter of careful selection and improve- 

 ment of our bees by breeding, rests our greatest opportu- 

 nity to advance the art of bee-keeping. As will be patent 

 to all, by the above process we exercise a care in bi-eeding 

 which is not surpassed by the best breeders of horses and 

 cattle, and which no w^ise apiarist will ever neglect. Nor 

 do I believe that Vogel can be correct in thinking that 

 drones give invariably one set of character and the queens 

 the others. This is contrary to all experience in breeding 

 larger animals. 



It is often urged, and I think with truth, that we shall 

 secure better queens if we wait for the queen-cells to be 

 started naturally by the bees, under the swarming impulse ; 

 and by early feeding and adding brood from other colonies 

 we can hasten this period; yet, if we feed to stimulate, 

 whenever the bees are not storing, and keep the colony 

 redundant in bees of all ages by adding plenty of capped 

 brood from other colonies, we shall find that our queens 

 are little, if any, inferior, even if their production is hast- 

 ened by removal of a queen from the hive. If these direc- 

 tions are closely followed, there will be little brood for the 

 bees to feed, and the queen-cells will not suffer neglect. 



