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DR. MILLER'S 
breeding lo have a young queen meet a drone from the same hive, 
or even with the relation less close. 
Q. Does the honeybee degenerate through inbreeding? If so, 
what is the result? 
A. Indiscriminate inbreeding among bees, as with all other 
animals, is likely to result in deterioration, the bad qualities be- 
coming intensified. With intelligent control the result may be 
the other way. 
Income From Bees (See Living From Bees.) 
Increase. — Q. I am 21 years old, and I own four colonies of 
bees. I am as interested in the bee-business as I think any person 
can be. I have read all the bee literature I could for three years. 
At present I am taking four bee-papers. Would you advise me 
to buy more bees, or to wait until those I have increase? 
A. That depends. If you want to increase to a considerably 
larger number and have an opportunity of buying a few colonies 
at a bargain, as sometimes happens at an auction, or when one 
wants to get rid of his bees, it will be well for you to buy.* But 
if you can’t buy for less than $5.00 a colony, then it will be more 
profitable for you to run your bees for increase than for honey. 
Only don’t make the mistake of having a number of weak colonies 
on hand in the fall. It would, no doubt, be an easy thing to in- 
crease those four colonies to twenty or more by fall, and then lose 
most of them in the winter because too weak; but in the long run 
you will get on faster to move a little more slowly and surely. 
Of course, something depends upon the season. In a very poor 
season it may not be safe to increase at all, unless you do a good 
deal of feeding. But if you reach next fall with ten or twelve 
strong colonies, another good season ought to bring you up to 
forty or so. 
Q. Can you make a 20 per cent increase by going through the 
apiary and making a colony at different times without hurting the 
honey-flow ? 
A. I think it might be done without diminishing the crop, 
at least in some cases. Just enough strength taken from each 
colony to prevent swarming might increase rather than diminish 
the total harvest. 
Q. Can I take a colony and make four or five out of it and put 
a new queen in each? If so, how? 
A. You may do it in a good season. One way is to wait until 
the colony is strong, then take a little more than half the brood 
and bees and put in a new hive on a new stand, giving a new 
