62 OUTAPIARIES 



The I5 inch spacing provides a larger hive not in brood area 

 but in ventilation. 



Young Queens 



If we have followed recommendations on preparii.g our l;ees 

 for winter, we will have young and vigorous queens heading all 

 our colonies for the honey flow the following spring. But it must 

 be remembered that there is no orthodox rule applying to the 

 desirability of young queens. Some may prove their worthless- 

 ness before their progeny has had a chance to demonstrate harvest- 

 ing ability and these should be gotten rid of at the earliest moment 

 regardless of season. 



But it is evident that the desire to swarm is generally stronger 

 in colonies headed by old queens, so that queei.s less than two 

 years old are desirable. 



It may be that a queen has proven so good, her bees have 

 been such good honey gatherers, that we have more to gain by 

 retaining her, even though we run the risk of swarming. 



There is another matter which should ha\'e some bearing on 

 queen supersedure, and that is whether or not the queen has been 

 through a long, heavy honey flow. In the season of crop failure, 

 with breeding lestiic ted, the laying qualities of a queen are not 

 put to so severe a test, so that possibly a majority of the more 

 prolific may be valuable enough to be retained for another season. 



We cannot leave this subject without mentioning the pian of 

 one prominent Iowa apiarist to get young queens for the harvest 

 and thus control swarming. 



At the beginning of the honey flow, (clover is his main flow), 

 the colonies are carefully gone over and all queens over two years 

 old killed. Each colony is properly marked as to which are 

 desirable to breed from. 



On the next examination, ten days later, all cells are destroyed 



