Charlie Mraz wrote:

In our selection for queen reproduction, color or uniformity receives no consideration. This in only an indication of in-breeding, not production ability. To produce long lived and vigorous queens and bees, it is important to avoid inbreeding, even though this is the easiest method to produce queens on a large scale.

While it is possible to control swarming by selecting and in-breeding, non-swarming queens as a rule do not produce honey. Such queens usually do not swarm only because of degeneration, they do not become strong enough to swarm. It is not due to the elimination of the swarming characteristic. Bees that do not swarm are of no value if they do not produce a honey crop.

We find it impossible to buy queens with the qualities we need in our environment, we are forced to raise our own queens.

A honey producer normally does not have time to raise queens and such operations must be developed that will not interfere with normal operations for honey production or reduce the honey crop.

We do not requeen normal colonies, but let each colony requueen itself. We produce queens by divisions early in the spring only to replace losses from wintering or failure of queens. With our present strain of bees, we find that we need to raise only 1/3 or 1/4 the number of colonies we have in the apiary to replace losses each season.

When we divide, we pick the colonies that were the best producers the season before. We winter our colonies in 2 1/2 or more brood chambers so that even in early spring the colonies are strong and divisions of good strength can be easily made with one full hive body containing plenty of bees, honey and sealed brood and enough eggs to produce cells. This division, without the queen, is placed on top of the parent colony above a solid cover with an entrance. This saves the need of extra covers and bottom boards. We do not graft, but just let the bees produce their own cells, and do not look at them again until a month later with queens will be laying. After the queens are laying, the nucleus and queen can be moved anywhere needed for requiring or replacement. We find queens produced in this manner are equal to those produced by any other system.

By letting each division raise its own queen, we reproduce only one daughter from each mother queen. This helps greatly to prevent in-breeding and prevent losing our basic stock of breeding queens.

We endeavor to keep a broad genetic foundation by maintaining as many queens as possible, not directly related to each other. Each year as we find good queens from other sources, these are introduced to add new blood as it becomes necessary. In this way we have been able to maintain our basic strain of vigorous queens over a long period of time. Over the years, our basic strain has adapted itself to our conditions and environment.

COMMERCIAL HONEY PRODUCTION
CH. MRAZ, Apiacta 1, 1966

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