74 
A YEAH AMONG TIIE BEES. 
failure. Possibly the absence of the queen itself had some- 
thing to do with lessening their stores, but I doubt it. But 
when all combs of brood but one were taken away, a large 
force of prospective bees were taken away that would have 
hatched out in from 1 to 21 days. All the brood taken away 
when the queen was taken, even the eggs, would have 
produced bees in time for at least part of the honey harvest. 
Besides, those that might have hatched during the last week 
of the harvest, although they might gather not a drop, would 
be able to take the places of older ones, that in the absence 
of recruits were obliged to stay in the hives to do home duty. 
If I had allowed four or five frames of brood, changing 
every ten days, the result might have been quite different. 
Moreover, the one frame they did have was, for the most 
part, filled with brood so young, that little or none of it 
hatched while in the hive. If I should try anything in the 
same line again, I should keep four or five frames in the hive, 
and this should be mainly brood well advanced so that much 
of it would hatch out to replenish the wasting numbers. 
The problem, however, which I am most anxious to solve 
is, how to manage to have no swarms, and still allow the 
queen to remain laying in the hive all the time. It may 
* never be solved, but it is worth some dreaming over. 
QUEEN-REARING. 
My sole business being to produce honey, I am not particu- 
lar to keep a popular breed of bees, only so far as their 
popularity comes from their good qualities as honey- 
producers. I am anxious to have those that are good 
gatherers, good winterers, not cross, and not given to much 
swarming. I have no great confidence in my ability as a 
scientific breeder, so I have not attempted to establish a 
strain of my own, but every year or two I send to A. I. Root 
for one of his best imported queens. I know that there is 
more or less of uncertainty about this way of doing, but I 
am not sure that I know any better way. I am at least sure 
of good stock, and I am equally sure that amongst my own 
