IT has often been told by the older heads, that the secret of success in bee keeping was “strong stocks.” Although I commenced with the theory “that small stocks if confined within a small enough compass, would produce surplus honey in proportion to their numbers,” I have met with ample proof that this theory is incorrect, and that small stocks are unprofitable. It was the strong stocks that gathered the surplus honey this season, although the weak ones had four times the attention the stronger ones had.  

There are several ways in which strong stocks can be procured and selected. Wintering, in this latitude, generally means “the survival of the fittest.” I think our severe winters are a positive advantage in bee-keeping. The poor, sickly stocks are destroyed, which would otherwise only linger along through the summer, give no surplus, and set our genuine busy bees a bad example by their laziness. The queen, being mother of all, doubtless influences to a great degree the characteristics of her progeny.

So we should be careful as to how we raise our queens. There always are a few stocks that almost invariably winter well and give a goodly yield of surplus honey. These are the ones to raise queens from. In the same way let such colonies be the raisers of the drones. Thus, the bee-keeper will soon gain a predominance of strong stocks, and thus he gains the most important point required for success.   

APIARIAN. Adams Station, Albany Co., N.Y.  
Rural New Yorker (1879) 

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