294 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
When the cells have been sealed five or six 
days, preparation must be made for placing them, 
and the formation of nuclei will usually be the most 
desirable. The common method is as follows : A comb 
of hatching brood, with the adherent bees, but without 
the queen, is taken from a sufficiently populous stock, 
placed in a hive, with a comb of store on each side of 
it, sufficient bees being added, by shaking or brush- 
ing, to keep all in condition, and a dummy or dummies 
being added to close up the space. Twenty-four hours 
later, the queenless lot will gladly receive the royal 
cell, which should be ripe (see page 255), and which it 
is commonly recommended to cut from its position 
with a portion of comb. Having previously prepared 
an opening — using a very thin and narrow-bladed 
knife — amongst the brood of the central comb of the 
nucleus, the queen-cell may be dovetailed in, to be 
fixed by the bees, as in Fig. 78, allowing sufficient 
space for the escape of the hatching queen. This 
plan gives much trouble, greatly damages the combs, 
which, are never again neatly repaired, and, by the 
time it requires for its performance, is likely to 
expose the cells to chill. The cell, at the time 
of its removal, is soon to hatch, and I find it 
quite sufficient, and fully as safe, even in chilly 
weather, to detach with it a small piece of wax 
tracery, which, when the cell is passed between the 
top bars tb, Fig. 79), is pressed over {f), and 
flattened by the finger. The attachment the bees 
cannot gnaw away, because it is covered from them 
by the quilt. They nibble down their comb a little at 
a and b, and gather on the cell, which may be removed. 
