ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 
189 
If the comb used in forcing such a colony— which I 
shall call a nucleus —was removed at a time of day when 
the bees upon it would be likely to return to the parent- 
stock, they should be confined to the hive, until it is too 
late 1'or them to leave; and if the number of bees, just 
emerging from their cells, is not large, the entrance to the 
hive should be closed, until about an hour before sunset 
of the next day but one (see p. 161). The hive contain¬ 
ing this small colony, should be properly ventilated, and 
shaded—if thin—from the intense heat of the sun; it 
should always be well supplied with honey and water.* 
Suitable precautions should also be taken to guard against 
the loss of its young queen, when she leaves the hive to 
meet the drones. (See Chap, on Loss of Queen.) 
The best way of forming a nucleus, with movable-comb 
hives, will be by setting an empty hive over a full stock, 
in the way already described (p. 186) : when enough bees 
begin to make use of the upper entrance, a brood comb, 
with adhering bees, may be transferred to it, and the con¬ 
nection between the two hives closed. If the bees are 
reluctant to enter the upper hive, they may be encouraged 
to do so by nlacing honey there, in a feeder—keeping the 
outside entrance closed against robbers—and they may 
afterwards be allowed to pass out through the upper hive. 
In a few days this nucleus may be set down, and gradually 
removed, so that another hive may be put on the mother- 
stock. 
If all things are favorable, this nucleus, by the time A 
is forced, will have a fertile queen, which may be given to 
A, when the bees that return from the fields show that 
they realize (page 158), their queenless condition. The 
* Whenever the position of n colony Is so changed as to interrupt for a few 
daya iho flight of the bees, it will he advisable to supply them with water In thetr 
hive, as tho want of It <s often fatal to the brood. 
