In the first place, queens can not be raised by the thousands like cabbage plants, and all be good ones; therefore, you had better procure your queens from some old established breeder; even if you have to pay a trifle more on the start, you will be better satisfied in the long run. You had better pay ten dollars for one good one carefully bred, than to get ten poor ones for nothing. For remember that there is a great difference in queens; their purity may be unquestioned, yet they are not fit to breed from. 

I procured three queens from one party at ten dollars, and their purity was unquestioned, yet with all the coaxing I was master of I could not obtain as much brood from the three as I could from one ordinary queen in the same length of time, neither could I succeed in raising prolific queens from them. I have queens now that were properly bred from prolific stock, three years old, yet they are as good as ever, and I have one four years old that this season (1869) kept fully up to the standard. Breeding in and in should be carefully avoided. It is astonishing what a difference in the profits of your yard it will make in three years' carefully breeding. 

It is a known fact to practical, observing bee-keepers, that some queens are three and even four times as prolific as others under the same circumstances. Now, if you will follow the practice for three seasons, of breeding only from your most prolific queens, and see that every hive is supplied with a prolific one, you can bring every swarm up to a satisfactory standard. We will say that you have never seen the Italians. You procure a queen from some one, say Tom, Dick or Harry. 

They have not been in the business; yet they advertise queens at two dollars each, (cheaper than any one can afford them, that is, if they are all right in every particular). You get your queen, and your expectations are great, as you have read and been informed of the great superiority of the Italians; and ten chances to one if your expectations are realized, and forthwith you condemn the Italians, or those that have recommended them—they are all a humbug, etc. 

And all this disappointment is not owing to the Italians, but the queen is worthless. In fact, you are not a competent judge. Therefore, I say, if you are not acquainted with them, procure your queens from some old established breeder—one that has a reputation already built up, and then you will not be apt to be disappointed in your expectations. I have no queens for sale—so am grinding no ax! 

E. GALLUP. The Illustrated Bee Journal. MARCH, 1870.

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