A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
75 
rearing I have had some very bad stock. I get the queen in 
July if I can, more likely in August. I prefer this time 
because a queen then costs less, because it is less trouble to 
establish the queen in a colony of her own than early or late 
in the season, and because such queens are reared at a season 
of the year when they are more likely to be good. She is of 
little or no use to me till the succeeding year, but she is in 
good condition for that. 
I do not mean to be understood that all my bees are pure 
Italians. Some of them are very fine ; excelling in beauty 
any I ever reared from imported queens ; and some have a 
good share of black blood in them. Neither do I mean that 
all my queens are reared from imported stock. When it is 
convenient I often rear a queen of what appears good stock, 
and frequently the bees take the matter into their own hands 
and supersede their queen with one to suit their own notions. 
I have had good queens at three and four years old, but as 
a rule I suspect better results might be had not to keep them 
so long. A queen, however, which seems to be doing good 
work, so long as she remains quietly in her place, is in no 
great danger of decapitation, for it is quite a disturbance of 
the domestic arrangements to change the queen of a colony 
that is bending right down to solid business ; but if, by 
swarming or otherwise, a queen is out of her colony, her 
chances of getting back alive are not very good, if she is 
over two years old. 
It is of great importance to have good queens, and in 
former years I did not hesitate to break up my strongest 
colonies to secure good conditions for queen-rearing, but I 
found— perhaps I ought to say stumbled upon— a better way. 
I do not want my imported queen to do very heavy laying, 
as she will last longer if not overworked ; and I prefer to 
have a rather weak force of bees with her during the busy 
season, letting the colony build up somewhat late, so as to 
be in good condition for winter ; so through the main part of 
the season her hive stands on the top of the hive or super of 
some other colony, changing to a new one as often as it con- 
