TAKING 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. When a 

 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. 



