FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 229 



swarming:, the lower will be its standing. Generally, however, 

 a colony that gives the largest number of sections is one that 

 never dreamed of swarming. 



BREEDING PROM BEST. 



I am well aware that I will be told by some that I am 

 choosing freak queens from which to rear, and that it would 

 be much better to select a queen whose royal daughters showed 

 uniform results only a little above the average. I don't know 

 enough to know whether that is true or not, but I know that 

 some excellent results have been obtained by breeders of other 

 animals by breeding from sires or dams so exceptional in 

 character that they might be called freaks. I know, too, that 

 it is easier to decide which colony does best work than it is to 

 decide which queen produces royal progeny the most nearly 

 uniform in character. By the first way, too, a queen can be 

 used a year sooner than by the second way, and a year in the 

 life bf a queen is a good deal. I may mention that a queen 

 which has a fine record for two successive seasons is preferred 

 to one with the same kind of record for only one season. At 

 any rate, the results obtained in the way of improvement of 

 stock as a result of my practice have been such as to warrant 

 me in its continuance at least for a time. 



The danger from inbreeding must not be lost sight of en- 

 tirely. With two or three hundred colonies kept in three differ- 

 ent apiaries it is perhaps not great. Should signs of degener- 

 acy at any time appear, it will not be difficult to introduce 

 fresh blood. 



CONDITIONS FOR QUEEN-REARING. 



Having chosen the queen from which to rear, I have kept 

 in mind that unless conditions are favorable the royal progeny 

 of the best queen in the world may be very poor. Queen-cells 

 must be started when the weather is sufficiently warm, when 

 bees are gathering enough to make them feel that there is no 

 need to stint the royal larvae in their rations, and until near 

 the point of emergence it is much better that the cells shall be 

 in the care of a strong colony. So I do not begin operations 



