ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 189 



If the comb used in forcing such a colony which I 

 shall call a nucleus was removed at a time of day when 

 the bees upon it would be likely to return to the parent- 

 stock, they should be confined to the hive, until it is too 

 late for them to leave ; and if the number of bees, just 

 emerging from their cells, is not large, the entrance to the 

 hive should be closed, until about an hour before sunset 

 of the next day but one (see p. 161). The hive contain- 

 ing this small colony, should be properly ventilated, and 

 shaded if thin from the intense heat of the sun ; it 

 should always be well supplied with honey and water.* 

 Suitable precautions should also be taken to guard against 

 the loss of its young queen, when she leaves the hive to 

 meet the drones. (See Chap, on Loss of Queen.) 



The best way of forming a nucleus, with movable-comb 

 hives, will be by setting an empty hive over a full stock, 

 in the way already described (p. 186) : when enough bees 

 begin to make use of the upper entrance, a brood comb, 

 with adhering bees, may be transferred to it, and the con- 

 nection between the two hives closed. If the bees are 

 reluctant to enter the upper hive, they may be encouraged 

 to do so by ulacing honey there, in a feeder keeping the 

 outside entrance closed against robbers and they may 

 afterwards be allowed to pass out through the upper hive. 

 In a few days this nucleus maybe set down, and gradually 

 removed, so that another hive may be put on the mother- 

 stock. 



If all things are favorable, this nucleus, by the time A 

 is forced, will have a fertile queen, which may be given to 

 A, when the bees that return from the fields show that 

 they realize (page 158), their queenless condition. The 



* Whenever the position of a colony Is so changed as to interrupt for a few 

 days the flight of the bees, it will be advisable to supply them with water in their 

 hive, as the want of it is often fatal to the brood. 



