326 THIS HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



Q 



they will receive her. Mr. Lange advises that the Italian queen 

 be introduced immediately after the bees of a deprived colony 

 manifest undoubted consciousness of the loss they have sustained, 

 and before they have started any -royal cells, or made arrangements 

 for doing so. — Yours truly, »• Samuel Wagner." 



" Rev. L. L. Langstroth." 



The chief obstacle to the rapid diffusion of this valuable 

 variety has been the difficulty experienced by the ablest 

 German Apiarians in preserving the breed pure, even 

 Berlepsch having failed entirely to do so. By means of 

 my non-swarmer, however, this difficulty may be readily 

 overcome. 



Let the bee-keeper who obtains an Italian queen in the 

 Spring, give her, with proper precautions (p. 200), to a 

 populous colony, whose hive is well furnished with drone- 

 combs, having first deprived it of its queen. When 

 the drone cells are filled with sealed brood, let nuclei 

 (p. 189) be formed from this stock, and replace the combs 

 removed, with others containing workers ready to hatch. 

 By thus keeping the parent-stock alwaj^s populous, a 

 large number of nuclei may be formed from it. Just 

 before the young Italian queens mature, adjust the non- 

 swarmer (Plates II., v.. Figs. 5, 17) to all the hives con- 

 taining common drones, so as to shut them in, whUe free 

 egress is given to queens and workers. As only the drones 

 bred by the Italian queea have their liberty, aU the young- 

 females will be fertilized by them. As fast as the queens 

 of tlfe nuclei become fertile, they may be given to the 

 various stocks, and from these, in a short time, other 

 nuclei which will raise Italian queens, maybe formed. In 

 this way, an expert, who can be sure of having Italian 

 drones until late in the season, might easily convert an 

 Apiary of a thousand or more hives into stocks containing 

 none but the ne-n variety. 



