266 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
the heat of the brood-nest ; and it will be wise to 
contract, by a division-board or dummy, rather than 
add new frames of comb or foundation, unless the 
stock had been previously overflowing with bees. 
In the absence of a laying mother or sealed royal 
cell, the orphans must be left to their own devices, in- 
volving loss, which may, however, by a little trouble, 
be very considerably reduced. The principle involved 
is important, and should always be borne in mind in 
the management of nuclei (see “Nuclei^’). The parent 
stock rapidly grows strong by its brood hatching, 
this process continuing for three weeks, at pre- 
cisely the same rate as if the old mother had 
suffered no disturbance ; but in three days, the last 
egg laid by her before her removal having hatched, 
the amount of unsealed brood begins to diminish, and 
on the ninth day none remains, so that the younger 
bees, which should devote their energies to nursing, 
are reduced to enforced idleness. On the other hand, 
with proper attention to feeding — should a restricted 
honey flow make it necessary — the queen will soon 
have deposited all the eggs for which she finds 
accommodation, or which can receive attention ; for, 
had we not meddled, she could have kept all her 
nurses busy, but the greater part of them are now in 
another hive. The mother, thus limited, ceases to be 
of advantage to her colony until brood by hatching 
has once more supplied her with empty cells. This 
waste of energy, due to lack of nurses in one stock 
and lack of eggs in the other, is clearly remediable 
by transferring, every few days, a comb of eggs to 
the parent, and returning for it a comb of hatch- 
