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jccted her as unfit to breed from. We arc convinced 
that the darker queens are hardier and more prolific.’ 
I must add that on my return from Europe, I found in 
my apiary four of those pretty yellow queens whose 
eggs would never hatch.” 
I find that light colored queens may be produced by 
taking all possible care that they remain without admix- 
ture, and breeding them “in-and-in” for a great many 
generations, will gradually change them to a lighter 
color ; yet so gradual is this change that each queen 
may resemble her mother in color. M. Quinby says : 
— “ The light color will not be fixed until it has been 
uniform through several generations.” A darker hue 
of the queen's color is sometimes , — and probably fre- 
quently, — caused by an admixture of the black or com- 
mon bees. 
All queens raised from a pure queen under equal cir- 
cumstances— that is, under an abundance of natural 
forage and fair weather, — have appeared to me to be so 
near the color of their mother as to make detection 
difficult; while queens raised from mothers of doubtful 
purity vary greatly in color. 
. A few parties, breeding queens for the market, claim 
that they “have improved the purity of the Italian va- 
riety.” By breeding from the choicest queens, the 
most prolific breeders, and avoiding in-and-in breed- 
ing, the variety may be prevented from degenerating; 
