QUEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND. 35 



bees shaken into it off a brood comb from anotlier colony. 

 For this purpose it is convenient to use a large 

 funnel.* 



Some nuclei lose hardly any bees. This is frequently 

 the case with nuclei made up from colonies that ha\e been 

 queenless for one or two weeks. With most nuclei, howe\er, 

 there is more or less loss, and if half the bees remain it may 

 be considered fairly good. 



After three or four days the initial dwindling ceases, and 

 if the nucleus was supplied with a good deal of sealed brood 

 when it was made up, it will have grown quite strong after 

 it has been established about a week. Such a nucleus may 

 now be broken up into two, by removing about two-thirds 

 of the bees to a new hive in the evening. It is best to remove 

 the queen with the bees if she has not yet made a flight, and 

 to give the parent nucleus a ripe queen-cell. 



Weak colonies, or those containing chiefly old bees, may 

 generally be made to produce a nucleus by moving the hive 

 to a new location and putting a new hive containing one of 

 the combs covered with bees in the old location to catch 

 the flying bees. A ripe queen-cell is put into the hive at the 

 old location unless there is a flying virgin, in which case the 

 cell must be given to the portion that is moved. 



Excellent nuclei may be made -from "second" swarms 

 or casts, that is to say, swarms accompanied by virgin 

 queens. Secure the swarm as soon as it has settled and 

 cage the queens to prevent the swarm absconding. An hour 

 before sunset, if the temperature is as low as about 55 degrees, 

 or at sunset if it is about or above 65 degrees, kill the queens 

 and break the swarm up into a number of little swarms, each 

 weighing about half-a-pound, and run into each swarm a 

 two-day-old virgin. The bees will at first miss their com- 

 rades and become restless, but the gathering night will make 

 them settle down, and by the morning all desire to unite will 

 have gone. The number of bees in each nucleus may, if 

 necessary, be equalised by exchanging the frames on which 

 the bees are clustering. One advantage possessed by these 

 little swarms is that they do not require combs of honey or 



* It is a remarkable fact that bees thus added to a nucleus, even if 

 taken, from a different hiv«. do not attack the virgin. This la probably 

 because they feel themselves to be strangers. Also, they do not attack the 

 bees of the nucleus, which is too w^eak to set up opposition. 



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