226 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



or some may be marked in this way, and others with a piece 

 of colored cloth. (See p. 152-3.) To guard them against 

 robbers, the entrances to these nuclei should be contracted, 

 so that only a few bees can pass in at once. Those whicli 

 were confined, should be examined, the day after their liberty 

 is given to them ; the others the day after they were formed, 

 when, if they were not supplied with a sealed queen, they 

 will be found actively engaged in constructing royal cells. 

 A new range of comb should now be given to each 

 one, and it should contain no old bees, but brood rapidly 

 maturing, and if possible, eggs and worms only a few 

 days old. 



This addition of strength will greatly encourage the nuclei, 

 and give them the means of starting young queens, if they 

 have not succeeded, with the first comb. I have often 

 found, that for some cause, they start a large number of 

 queen cells, which in a few days, are all discontinued, and 

 untenanted. The second attempt seldom fails. Does prac- 

 tice make them more expert .' But I will simply state the fact, 

 referring lo my conjectures on page 218 ; and remarking 

 that when they make a second attempt, they are frequently 

 disposed to start a much larger number than they would 

 otherwise have done. In two or three days after giving 

 them the first piece of comb, I give them another, if their 

 queen is nearly mature, and then let them alone, until she 

 ought to be depositing eggs in the hive. I now give them at in- 

 tervals of a few days, two or three combs more, which make 

 them sufficiently powerful in bees, to gather large quantities 

 of honey, and fill the empty part of their hive. The young 

 queen is supplying with thousands of worker-eggs, the cells 

 from which the brood has emerged, and also the new ones 

 built by the bees, and the young colony will soon be one of 

 the best stock hives in the Apiary. 



