122 BEGINNER'S BEE BOOK 



followed extensively the honey flows are rapid 

 and of short duration. It is of great import- 

 ance under such conditions to keep the colony 

 together until the harvest is gathered. Hence 

 the non-swarming tendency is desirable. 



The JNIale Paeentage. — One serious 

 drawback in queen breeding is the difficulty of 

 controlling the male parentage. The queen 

 mates on the wing and often meets a drone 

 from a distant colony which may be of another 

 race or inferior stock. The man who cannot 

 send his queens to some isolated position where 

 there are no other bees within four or five 

 miles can do little to overcome this condition, 

 other than to raise such large numbers of 

 drones from his desirable colonies that the 

 chances of meeting undesirable males is very 

 greatly reduced. 



Another difficulty lies in the fact that the 

 quality of the male offspring is determined 

 rather by the mating of the mother of the 



