May 1. 1912 



EXTRA RAPID IN- 

 CREASE 



How One Colony was In- 

 creased to Thirty in 

 One Season 



BY G. H. ADAM.- 



On the 20th of May, 

 11109, a friend of mine, 

 Harry Fort, of Green- 

 wich, N. Y., p;ot a 

 strong colony of Ital- 

 ian bees of me. He 

 wanted more; but I 

 ailvised him to wait 

 and see how many 

 colonies we could 

 make in one season 

 from this one. To 

 my astonishment we 

 were able to increase 

 that one, with a few 

 extra drones (as the 

 queen did not lay 

 drone eggs that sea- 

 son) , to 3(1 strong col- 

 onies, the bees build- 

 ing all their own 

 comb and rearing 

 nearly all their own 

 queens. We did it by 

 dividing. We found 

 it necessary to do 

 some feeding, how- 

 ever, toward the last, 

 as the season was 

 poor. 



In order to give a 

 description of the 

 method followed in 

 making the increase 

 it will be necessary 

 to tell what kind of 

 frames and hives I 

 use. My brood frame 

 is 11 's inches deej) 

 and 11 Vs long — near- 

 ly the same size as the 

 (iallup. I consider 

 it the best frame for 

 all purposes ever 

 used. I have tried 

 the Langstroth and 

 several other kinds, 

 but do not like them. 

 These frames l^eing 

 deeper, bees winter 

 better on them. The 

 extractors cost less for 

 this kind of frame, 

 and the combs of 

 honey hang in them 

 the same as they do 

 in the hive, making 

 it easier to extract 

 without much break- 

 age of combs. With 

 the Langstroth frame 

 very many break out 

 when the combs are 

 heavy, as they have 

 to stand on end — at 



J. B. Reynolds hiving a swarm clustered on a peach tree. 



