166 THE HIVE AND HONfiY-BEE. 



ing brood, eggs, and stores, are given to the forced swarm, 

 it will be much encouraged, and will need no feeding, if 

 the weather should be unfavorable. In removing the 

 frames, the bee-keeper should look for the queen, and give 

 the comb on which she is, to the forced swarm, without 

 shaking off the bees. If he does not see her on the 

 combs, he will seldom fail to notice her, after a little prac- 

 tice, as she is shaken on the sheet, and crawls towards the 

 new hive. The queen is seldom left on a frame after it 

 has been shaken so that most of the bees fall off. As soon 

 as the necessary number of bees have been transferred to 

 the new hive, the precautions previously given must be 

 used to obtain adhering bees for the parent-stock. 



If the proper allowance of bees is secured for the parent- 

 stock by the method described on page 162, the hive for 

 the forced swarm may be placed at once on the old stand, 

 and the bees from the parent-stock shaken from the frames 

 upon a sheet, so placed that they can easily run into their 

 new hive. 



If the forced swarms were made a short time before 

 natural swarming would have taken place, some of the 

 parent-stocks will contain a number of maturing queens, 

 which may be removed, a few days before hatching, and 

 given to such as have started none. 



By making a few forced swarms, about a week or ten 

 days before the time in which the most are to be made, 

 there will be an abundance of sealed queens, almost ma- 

 ture, so that every parent-stock may have one. If an un- 

 hatched queen can be given, on her frame, to each stock 

 that needs it, so much the better ; but if there are not 

 enough frames with sealed queens, while some contain two 

 or more, the bee-keeper must proceed as follows : 



With a sharp pen-knife, carefully remove apiece of comb, 

 an inch or more square, that contains a queen-cell ; and in 



