and its Economic Management. 6 1 



of actual gatherers shall presently be far in excess of those 

 required to attend to the young. 



As a rule, especially where no honey is obtained after 

 July, the best results are secured by preventing the issue 

 of swarms, unless obtained from three to four weeks 

 before the first honey flow is usually expected ; but never- 

 theless, unless 



The Equivalent of Swarming 



is allowed, our stock must deteriorate as a natural conse- 

 quence. Therefore select one out of every ten colonies 

 and devote it to queen-raising (see chapter on same), 

 and allow one nucleus with a young queen to stand by 

 the side of every stock. By the Autumn such nuclei will 

 have themselves become fairly strong, when the old queens 

 can be destroyed and the two lots respectively united in 

 the evening of the following day. 



Having studied the general rules to be observed if we 

 wish to have only good working stock, we must now con- 

 sider which are the 



Host Suitable Bees 



for our purpose, whether we intend to work them for 

 comb or extracted honey. 



The advantages to be derived from the foreign varieties 

 can hardly be over-estimated, for by crossing with queens 

 of the native kind, we get greater fecundity, and better 

 honey-gathering powers than either pure race possesses. 

 In the former chapter I have already shown that a black 

 queen may form the basis from which to build up a good 

 working strain. Select such queen of known excellence, 

 and for the production of comb-honey use Italian or 

 Carniolan drones to mate with young ones raised from 

 her ; the first cross being the most suitable. 



