6o A Modern Bee-Farm 



keep her till another season and her colony will be hardly 

 second-rate. 



To be prolific a queen must not simply keep pace with 

 her workers while building up in preparation for the 

 season, but must actually force them to make room for her. 

 Such queens are to be had, and with them no " brood 

 spreading " by the apiarist is necessary. A well-developed 

 queen is more hardy and energetic than a smaller one ; 

 and, as a rule, will get mated in risky weather when 

 twenty inferior queens fail to meet a drone. 



The finest queens are obtained from young mothers. A 

 queen is in her highest state of excellence soon after she 

 commences to lay, and can be used for breeding other 

 queens, if from stock of known excellence, as soon as it is 

 found by her hatching bees that she has mated correctly. 



Queens cannot be too Prolific. 



I am aware that there are some bee-keepers who consider 

 that a queen can be too prolific. It may be so with their 

 management, but as [a simple matter of fact the more 

 prolific the queen, the larger the surplus stored, but one's 

 management must provide that she does her best before 

 the season opens ; thereafter she will simply keep pace 

 with the wear and tear upon the life of the workers. 



It will be asked, " And how are we to provide that the 

 best powers of the queen are to be used up before actual 

 storage commences ? " Some important matters having 

 reference thereto I have already given ; but one way of 

 doing this is to unite two or more colonies, making them 

 very strong in the Autumn whenever it is found stocks 

 are at all under full strength. Another plan is that of 

 uniting about ten days before the season is expected to 

 open, and thus in either case providing that the number 



