224 THE -BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



If this plan of forming nuclei, were attempted earlier in 

 the afternoon it would be difficult to prevent the bees from 

 communicating on the wing, and all going to the hive which 

 contained their queen. If however, the bees when first 

 shaken out of the temporary hive, are so thoroughly sprink- 

 led, as not to be able to take wing and unite together, this 

 mode of forming colonies may be practiced at any hour of 

 the day ; and an experienced Apiarian may prefer to do it, 

 as soon as he has fairly hived the new swarm. When the 

 bees are shaken out in front of a hive which has a sealed 

 queen, or, eggs from which they can raise one, having 

 a whole night in which to accustom themselves to their new 

 situation, they will be found, the next day, to adhere to the 

 place where they were put, with as much tenacity as a 

 natural swarm -does to their new hive. How wonderful 

 that the act of swarming should so thoroughly impress 

 upon the bees, an absolute indisposition to return to the 

 parent stock. If this were a fixed and invariable ijnwilling- 

 ness, a sort of blind, unreasoning instinct, it w.ould not be so 

 surprising, but we have already seen that in case the bees 

 lose their queen, they return in a very short time to the 

 stock from which they issued ! If the nuclei formed in the 

 manner just described, found in their new hive, no means of 

 obtaining a queen, they would all return, next morning, to 

 the parent stock. 



When the Apiarian can obtain a natural swarm from 

 any other Apiary, it may be divided into nuclei in the same 

 way, and even a forced swarm, if brought from a distance, 

 will answer equally well. If the Apiarian wishes to form col- 

 onies earlier.than the season of natural swarming, and can- 

 not conveniently obtain a forced swarm from an Apiary, at 

 least a mile distant, he may, before the bees begin to fly out 

 in the Spring, transport one of his stocks to a neighbor's, and 



