Nov. 1, 1911 



^5 



APIARY OF G. C. CHASE, ROBBINS, WISCONSIN. 



OVER 200 LBS. OF HONEY FROM A THREE- 

 FRAME NUCLEUS. 



The Crop Depends Largely on the Queens; a Unique 



Method of Keeping the Record of a 



Queen Without Books. 



BY G. C. CHASE. 



[One of our readers, Mr. E. K. Colien, of Maiiawa, 

 Wis., noticing the mention of the record made by 

 G. C. Cha-^e in some of the advertising of llie late 

 Geo. E. Hilton, became every much interested, and 

 he wrote to Mr. Chase, asking for particulars. The 

 letter which he received in reply he considered so 

 valuable that he secured permission to send it to 

 Gleanings for publication.— Ed.] 



M?'. E. E. Colien: — Replying to your let- 

 ter of a recent date, asking me to state brief- 

 ly howl managed a big surplus in the worst 

 year on record, permit me to say that, while 

 I do not consider I have been in the business 

 long enough to pose as an expert, I at least 

 have nothing to conceal, and will cheerfully 

 tell you how I managed, as plainly as pos- 

 sible, and will feel amply repaid if, by so do- 

 ing, I can help a fellow-laborer in the field 

 of beedom. 



The statement that I made to George E. 

 Hilton was correct. I had a number of his 

 nuclei that gave me more than 100 lbs. of 

 surplus each, and one full colony from which 

 I took seven frames of brood to strengthen 

 some weak colonies that gave me one prime 

 swarm and a little over 200 pounds of hon- 

 ey. My sixteen colonies and the thirty 

 three-frame nuclei that I bought gave me in 

 all over 4000 pounds of fine extracted honey. 



1 practice taking my bees out of the cel- 



lar early, and then protecting them well. 

 Two years ago in the spring my bees had 

 dysentery; and, if I had not put them out 

 early, I would have lost many of them. 



After trying several ways for increase I 

 have adopted the following, as giving best 

 results: 



I build up my colonies as fast as possible; 

 and when they are strong in bees, and have 

 from seven to nine frames of brood, I treat 

 each as follows: Beginning with the first 

 colony I set the hive off the stand, replac- 

 ing it with a hive filled with frames having 

 full sheets of foundation. Then I look up 

 the queen of the colony just taken from the 

 stand, and take the frame of brood she is on 

 with all adhering bees, and put it into the 

 center of the new hives, having first taken 

 out one or two frames of foundation to make 

 room for the easy introduction ot the frame 

 of brood, bees, and queen. Afier replacing 

 the frames of foundation I put on a queen- 

 excluder, and set the old colony on top. 

 Five days later I set the old (or top) hive 

 on a new stand, and examine it for any 

 queen-cells forming. These I at once cut 

 out, and two days later I give them a laying 

 queen. These colonies so divided and man- 

 aged for increase, with proper feeding, will, 

 when the harvest time comes, be ready in 

 countless numbers to enter the field of sweets. 



Now a word about feeding. Let me go 

 back to the taking of the bees from the cel- 

 lar in early spring. Having given them 

 protection, as I said before, the first day the 

 weather permits I open every hive to see if 

 they have a queen and plenty of stores, 

 when I leave them until they begin to bring 



