104 NUCLEUS SWARMING. 



in a gauze wiie cage. Having filled up the nucleus lave with 

 empty frames, exchange the places of the two hives, bringing 

 the entrance of the nucleus hive where the old stock has stood, 

 and where the mass of the old bees will return from the fields, 

 thus throwing out of the old stock swarms of workers into the 

 nucleus hive, while the old bees from the nucleus will enter the 

 old hive and minister to the wants of the numerous brood of the 

 parent stock. The bees must not be swarmed between the hatch 

 ing and fertilization of the queen, and should they be swarmed 

 when the honey harvest has received a check from a storm or 

 drought, the bees thus empty of honey and consequently more 

 quarrelsome, being suddenly thrown into the presence of a strange 

 qneen (although of the same scent) are inclined to sting her. To 

 prevent this she is caged for thirty-six hours, when the bees 

 from the old stock will mostly have joined the nucleus colony 

 and she may be safely liberated. But, if she was taken from 

 another nucleus, we sometimes let her remain caged a day 

 longer, or smear her well with warm honey and drop her in 

 among the bees. They immediately commence licking up the 

 honey smi forget to sting her. 



If from any cause the stocks are swarmed when the bees are 

 working but little, and after three or four days the nucleus swarm 

 be found deficient in bees, it may be strengthened by exchang- 

 ing some of its empty frames for frames of capped brood from 

 the parent stock, or should the flowers yield bountifully within a 

 week, the location of the two hives may again be exchanged. 

 The bees will not quarrel as they are of the same scent, unless a 

 nucleus has been formed several weeks, or when honey is scarce 



