8 THE REARING OF QUEEN BEES. 
the increase is made, the new colony will gain about three weeks in 
brood production over a colony which has to produce its own queen. 
The question which arises in the mind of every bee keeper is: Will 
it pay me to rear my own queens? Very good untested queens can 
now be purchased for $1, or even less, it is true; but where a large 
apiary is to be requeened, this amount, though small for one colony, 
reaches considerable size when multiplied by a few score; and if this 
amount can be saved, and the total net receipts of each colony corre- 
spondingly increased with comparatively little labor, it would seem 
folly for the bee keeper to persist in purchasing queens. 
It will of course be necessary for the average bee keeper to buy 
some queens. The selection of fine strains of stock must be left to 
the professional queen breeder in most cases, and it will be well to buy 
the breeding stock from some such person. Where no particular 
improved strain of stock is desired, it may pay the extensive bee 
keeper to buy an imported queen to be used as a breeder. In the case 
of Italian bees this does not seem necessary, for very superior stock 
is reared in the United States, and queen bees of the Italian variet}^ 
are actually shipped from this country to Italy to be used as breeders. 
In Carniolan, Cyprian, and other races not so much selection has been 
carried on in this country, and in consequence the desirability of 
importations is greater in order to insure purity of stock. 
Few bee keepers are so situated that they can with profit rear their 
own breeding stock. It is the rule in some apiaries to choose the 
queen from the colon}^ with the best hone} 7 record as the breeder for 
the following year, but this, while seemingly good policy, leads to 
curious errors. Unless it is certain that the queen is of pure stock or 
of a fixed cross she should not be used, for it is a well-known fact that 
when a first cross is used as a breeder the resulting offspring are most 
variable. 
It is, the purpose of this bulletin to outline a plan for breeding 
queens in the home apiary which it is believed can be used with the 
minimum of labor and expense, one with which good results have 
already been obtained. Queen rearing can not be carried on without 
careful attention, but the methods are not, as many believe, so compli- 
cated as to make it impossible for the honey producer to afford the 
time. The beginner in bee keeping can scarcely expect to rear good 
queens during the first year, and no one can hope to do so until he 
becomes well acquainted with the habits of bees. It is impossible to 
give directions minute enough to cover every phase of the subject, and 
so that every emergency will be foreseen: a great deal must necessarily 
be left to the common sense and experience of the apiarist. The out- 
line herein given, however, ought to be sufficient for anyone who has 
had one year's careful work with bees. 
