BEE MANUAL. 219 
drones flying from our apiary at this time, so that there would 
be every likelihood of our queens mating as we desired. 
Sometimes quite a number of young queens will be lost 
during their wedding trip, at other times very few. I have 
never been able to satisfactorily account for this difference. 
Whether it be that there are more bee-enemies about at one 
time than another I cannot say, but of this I am certain, that 
there are a less number lost when the nucleus hives are far 
apart and located some little distance away from the main part 
of the apiary. Mr. Alley says that the daughters of some 
queens are more liable to be lost than others but cannot account 
for it. In another place he says: “I bred from a queen last 
season, not one in fifty of whose daughters were lost in mating.” 
Possibly some have a sense of locality better developed than 
others, and are therefore less likely to miss their proper home 
on their return from their first flight. At any rate it is a 
matter worth giving attention to. 
When the young queens commence to lay, which they will 
do in a few days after mating, they are ready to be made use of 
unless we desire to test them, and when raising them for sale 
they should always be tested for purity and laying qualities for 
at least a month. By following up with cell building others 
may be ready to place in the nuclei when the young laying 
queens are removed, though there may not be the same chance 
to have the second lot of queens mated by selected drones 
unless it can be accomplished by the use of drone excluders, 
the utility of which, as I have before remarked, I am rather 
doubtful about. Even then no other bees should be near the 
aplary. 
NECESSARY DISTANCE APART OF DIFFERENT RACES TO 
ENSURE PURE MATING. 
This is a question upon which a considerable difference of 
opinion exists. Mr. Alley thinks that half a mile is far enough, 
while many other experienced apiarists consider that a mile, or 
even two, is rather close. It is one of those still debatable 
questions connected with apiculture which may be argued on 
both sides for any length of time without being settled satis- 
factorily one way or the other by actual proof. I am inclined 
to think, however, that if we want to make sure of our queens 
