v PARKING NESTS | 93 
satisfactory plan is to put it on a shelf in a wooden 
house specially fitted up to take humble-bees’ nests, 
as explained in the next chapter. 
Evening is the best time to put the bees into 
their new home. The comb having been placed 
where it is intended to remain, the bees, which 
have now. become drowsy and listless, are shaken 
out of their jar on to it, the jar being sharply 
rapped so that they all fall out at once. Whena 
flower-pot is used to cover the nest the jar may be 
simply placed upside down over the hole in the top 
of the pot. Finding themselves on the brood again, 
the bees revive and begin to clean and trim them- 
selves, and in a wonderfully short time they recover 
completely, and run about over the comb carrying 
out their duties exactly as they did before the nest 
was taken. It is necessary at first to allow the bees 
no way of escape from the receptacle containing the 
comb, otherwise many of them would fly or crawl 
away and get lost; but after an hour or two, when 
it is dark, and they have all settled down on the 
comb, a flight-hole may be made by raising the edge 
of the box or pot with a piece of wood or stone, or 
in any other convenient way, care being taken not 
to disturb the bees, and next morning they will be 
seen working busily, flying in and out in perfect 
contentment. If the old location of the nest is not 
far away some of the old bees will return to it, but 
not many, and their loss will soon be made good by 
the fresh ones emerging from the comb. 
