ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 159 



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Confinemerit. 



VERY experienced bee-keeper knows, of course, that the 

 =^ mating of a queen bee takes place upon the wing, in the 

 open air; the queen leaving the hive for this purpose when 

 about a week old. It seems to be Nature's plan for prevent- 

 ing in and in breeding; as the chances are that the queen will meet 

 with a drone from some other colony than her own. There is no 

 doubt that there is as much difference in our bees as there is in 

 our other domestic animals, and the one thing that has prevented 

 the development of strains of bees far superior to those we now 

 possess, is that we have so little control over the choice of drones 

 with which the queens shall mate. Where would our Shorthorns, 

 Jerseys, Merinos, Poland Chinas and Plymouth Rocks have been 

 now, if the mating of these animals had been no more under our con- 

 trol than is the mating of our queen bees ? 



Attempts have been made to secure the desired object by con- 

 fining young queens and drones in a tent, but, with one exception, 

 some fundamental principle has been overlooked. For instance, 

 drones of an improper age may have been employed; besides, a 

 drone frightened to death and trying to escape from what, to him, is 

 a prison, is in no mood to pay his addresses to a queen. The only 

 wonder is that there has been an occasional success in carrying out 

 this plan. The one really successful attempt at mating queens in a 

 tent was made by Mr. J. S. Davitte, of Aragon, Georgia, and was 

 described in the February issue of the Bee-Keepers' Review, for 

 1901. The mating tent was qiftd? as follows; 



