144. The first principle to keep in mind in increasing your colonies of bees is to choose one of four methods that shall be least expensive.

145. The three commonly practiced methods are: first, the purchase of bees in packages without combs; second, the making of divisions from colonies of your own; third, the purchase of swarms from neighbors. Perhaps the most expensive of these, unless very carefully handled, is the making of increase from your own colonies, either in the form of swarms or other divisions. Any of these plans costs money. It is a disputed question as to which costs the least, but in any event, the common plan of allowing the bees to swarm for the sake of getting increase, is probably the most expensive. The question of which plan to adopt will depend largely upon the types of honey flows in your locality and the quality of honey you may be able to produce.

146. The second plan, that of making divisions from colonies that you own, whether in the form of swarms, or of dividing the brood, may easily be the most expensive. Any division of the full working force of the colony at the beginning of or during the honey flow, always results in a decreased production of honey.

147. There are localities where more than one honey flow occurs in which one or more of the flows may produce light colored honey which will bring a good price on the market. Others may produce a poorer quality of honey, either in body, color, or flavor. It naturally follows that it is less expensive to make increase and build it up on types of honey that are marketable only at a low price.

148. Perhaps the most puzzling question for the novice is how to get in touch with sellers of bees and in what form to buy them. The safest method is to subscribe to a reliable bee journal and to order bees from those whose advertisements appear in this journal and who are engaged in the business of producing bees primarily for sale. Any reliable bee journal nowadays very carefully investigates the past record and standing of advertisers before they sell them space, and in most cases guarantees a satisfactory deal between the purchaser and the seller. Perhaps a point to keep in mind that is seldom followed, is to place your order for bees well in advance of the time you want them to arrive. Have a thorough understanding with the shipper as to the date on which you want the bees to reach you.

149. It would be equally useless to order bees and not to prepare in advance for their arrival the hives, foundation, and supers, that are to be used to house these bees. If you have no extra hives on hand it will necessary to order one complete hive with sufficient foundation to equip each frame with a full sheet and to receive, nail up, and prepare this equipment for the bees in advance of their arrival. Whether or not supers will be required for bees so purchased, will depend upon your management of them the first year you have them, and of course, upon the season in your locality.

150. It should be kept in mind that the queen bee is really the mother bee and that each package or swarm purchased, must be accompanied by a queen bee if that colony is to succeed. We recommend the purchase of Italian queens, even if the bees that may accompany her are not pure. The most common type of queen purchased is an untested queen, which is perfectly satisfactory for all practical purposes. Queen bees sold by breeders of bees are offered usually as untested, tested, and select tested. An untested queen is one that has been mated and has started to lay eggs in her hive but which has been caged and shipped to a buyer before any of the brood from her eggs has emerged. You are unable to know certainly that an untested queen has been purely mated and that her progeny will be pure, but any reliable breeder does everything possible to obtain this. A tested queen is simply one that has been retained in her own hive until some of her brood has emerged, in order to know from the markings of her bees that she has been purely mated. A select tested queen is simply a tested queen selected from all of her type of stock, probably picked out more for appearance than anything else. Thus it will be seen that for all practical commercial purposes an untested queen is cheapest in the long run and just as valuable from the point of fertility and the honey-gathering qualities of her progeny as is any other.

151. Of late years the shipment and purchase of bees in combless packages has reached enormous proportions. In the southern states where the heavier honey flows come late in the season colonies may be built up rapidly and reach the swarming strength long before those bees are really needed to work on the honey flow. Beekeepers in these localities have hit upon the idea of shaking bees off combs into wood and wire cages and shipping them in packages of one or more pounds each to buyers in the North, accompanying each package by a queen bee where this is specified. It is necessary for the purchaser of a package of bees to have a hive previously prepared in which to release them upon their arrival. It is not difficult for the novice to succeed with package bees. However, if they arrive at a season when weather or nectar conditions are sub-normal, they require very careful handling. It is advisable to release such bees on part drawn combs if you have them, and if they are released on full sheets of foundation instead, they may require some feeding and more careful management. We think it is a safe rule to advise beginners in beekeeping to start only with the purchase of combless packages.