MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

132 DR. miller'sbreeding to have a young queen meet a drone from the same hive,or even with the relation lessclose.Q. Does the honeybee degenerate through inbreeding? If so,what is the result?A. Indiscriminate inbreeding among bees, as with all otheranimals, is likely to result in deterioration, the bad qualities becomingintensified. With intelligent control the result may bethe other way.Income From Bees (See Living From Bees.)Increase.— Q. I am 21 years old, and I own four colonies ofbees. I am as interested in the bee-business as I think any personcan be. I have read all the bee literature I could for three years.At present I am taking four bee-papers. Would you advise meto buy more bees, or to wait until those I have increase?A. That depends. If you want to increase to a considerablylarger number and have an opportunity of buying afew coloniesat a bargain, as sometimes happens at an auction, or when onewants to get rid of his bees, it will be well for you to buy. Butif you can't buy for less^than $5.00 a colony, then it will be moreprofitable for you to run your bees for increase than for honey.Only don't make the mistake of having a number of weak colonieson hand in the fall. It would, no doubt, be an easy thing to increasethose four colonies to twenty or more by fall, and then losemost of them in the winter because too weak; but in the long runyou will get on faster to move a little more slowly and surely.Of course, something depends upon the season. In a very poorseason it may not be safe to increase at all, unless you do a gooddeal of feeding. But if you reach next fall with ten or twelvestrong colonies, another good season ought to bring you up toforty or so.Q. Can you make a 20 per cent increase by going through theapiary and making a colony at different times without hurting thehoney-flow?A. I think it might be done without diminishing the crop,at least in some cases. Just enough strength taken from eachcolony to prevent swarming might increase rather than diminishthetotal harvest.Q. Can I take a colony and make four or five out of it and puta new queen in each? If so, how?A. You may do it in a good season. One way is to wait untilthe colony is strong, then take a little more than half the broodand bees and put in a new hive on a new stand, giving a new