GETTING THE BEES.—Chapter V. 
box will weigh from four to seven pounds, and the five-frame from 20 to 28 
pounds (shipping weight). These nuclei can be bought from any reliable 
bee-breeder (although bees are now being more and more sold in packages). 
They are ordinarily shipped by express in a nucleus shipping case or 
nucleus box, but they may be shipped in a full-sized hive. Directions for 
caring for the bees on arrival accompany all shipments, and these should 
be carefully followed. A division-board may well be used at the side of 
the exposed comb. After the bees have been placed in their hive, an addi- 
tional frame of drawn comb or foundation should be put in as soon as 
the comb in the nucleus frame has become filled with brood and stores, and 
there are plenty of bees to cover the brood. This giving of additional 
frames of drawn comb or foundation should be continued until the hive is 
filled. If there are only one or two frames of bees the entrance should be 
contracted to one or two inches in width; and, if the weather is cool, the 
entrance should not be more than 34 of an inch deep. If the bees of a 
nucleus are received in a hive instead of in a nucleus box or shipping 
case, at once place the hive in its permanent position, and, after smoking 
the bees, carefully remove the screen from over the entrance, allowing the 
bees a chance for flight. Also loosen and remove the screen covering the top 
and put on the regular cover. The floor of the hive is fastened on with 
brads or nails which can be taken out if desired. When the bees have 
become quiet the combs may be examined to see if they contain brood in all 
stages of development as well as eggs, thus indicating that the colony has a 
normal queen. (See page 57.) It is not necessary to find the queen to know 
that she is in the hive, since the presence of worker eggs tells us she has 
been there within three days. If no eggs are seen in the cells, and the bees 
are starting the large cells known as queen-cells (see page 37), one may 
be sure that the queen is missing. Sometimes the queen is not readily found. 
She may be only a little larger than the worker bees or she may be nervous 
and inclined to hide. In such cases her presence may be recognized only by 
her egg-laying and the absence of any queen-cells. If the queen is missing, 
one must at once be secured for the nucleus and introduced immediately. 
(See page 60). If the bees are short of stores in the combs, give them a 
little sugar syrup (see page 100), which will serve as stimulative feeding to 
encourage breeding. Do not let them starve. (See page 111.) 
Buying Swarms. 
Buying a good-sized swarm of bees from a neighboring beekeeper, or 
finding such a swarm at large which nobody claims, and capturing it, is, 
perhaps, in the majority of instances, the most satisfactory method of get- 
ting a start. (Don’t confuse swarms with colonies. A swarm is a family 
of bees which has left the parent hive to seek a new home.) When buying 
swarms from some beekeeper, arrangement should be made for the pur- 
chase of them in advance. Empty hives may be left with the beekeeper 
for hiving the swarms when they issue from his colonies. The beginner 
can then get his bees at his own convenience. As a swarm almost invariably 
is accompanied by a queen, the purchase of a swarm provides for the com- 
plete stocking of a hive. If the beginner has decided on a trial of bee- 
keeping because of the finding of some stray swarm clustering somewhere 
on his premises, let him shake the swarm from their clustering place into 
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