Meanwhile, the beekeeper may have some influence in effecting true mating, by exciting with liquid food given or syringed into them, some of the hives that have most Italian drones and queens ready for flight, thus inciting them to play in front of the hives earlier, while the other drones are still resting quietly in their hives. It is evident, then, that it is better to have the Italian drones in few hives but in large numbers. By making the stocks queenless, the drones can be preserved far on into the autumn, so as to have some ground for hoping for the genuine mating of the queens that take their marriage flight after the extinction of the other drones. To set up Italian stocks in an entirely isolated apiary is really not necessary, nor even advantageous. The more hives there are at the same apiary, the greater is the opportunity of assisting the Italians with brood-combs and bees. The more young Italian queens can be lodged out, so many the more genuine ones will there be among them. But drones must not be allowed to be reared in the other hives.
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