and its Economic Management. 45 



The Equivalent of Swarming 



is allowed our stock must deteriorate as a natural consequence. 

 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 the following evening. 



Having studied the general rules to be observed if we wish to 

 have only good working stock, we must now consider which are 

 the 



Most 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 a former chapter I have 

 already shown that a black queen must form the basis from which 

 to build the very best working strain. Select such queen of known 

 excellence and for the production of comb-honey use Carniolan 

 drones to mate with young ones raised from her ; the first cross 

 being the most suitable. 



For extracted honey the second cross to Cyprian drones will 

 be found to give the best results. Pure black bees are not at all 

 desirable for either purpose, as they cease storing quite a month 

 sooner than the foreign varieties or hybrids ; moreover they are 

 frequently troubled with the wax moth, while the latter never are. 

 Pure Cyprians, Carniolans, Syrians and Ligurians, in the order 

 named, are also suitable for producing extracted honey. 



Let it be observed that black (native) drones are to be 

 rigorously excluded, as these give bad-tempered workers when 



