100 
TIIE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
comb belonging to the nucleus, with all the btes that are 
on it, may then be given to the artificial colony, C. Or, 
if the bee-keeper prefer, he may give to A its own queen, 
and give the young one — with the precautions subse¬ 
quently described—to C. 
If the stocks are to be doubled , a second nucleus must 
be formed, by taking, about ten days later, a brood comb 
from _Z?, and giving the second queen to the second artifi¬ 
cial colony, D* 
If the colonies are to be multiplied more rapidly still, 
then from the first nucleus only its queen must be taken, 
after she has begun to lay, and her colony will at once 
begin to raise another. If she is removed before she has 
laid any eggs, the comb of the nucleus—after all the bees 
are shaken from it—must be returned to A or JB, and re¬ 
placed with another that is well supplied with eggs: and 
if, at any time, the number of bees in the nucleus is too 
small, it may be reinforced by exchanging its comb for 
one that is as full of hatching brood as when it was first 
formed (p. 188). The same process must be adopted 
with the second nucleus, and thus—at regular intervals— 
enough queens may be obtained from the two, to multiply 
the colonies to any desired extent. 
To make this matter perfectly plain, let us suppose that 
C is to be forced on the 1st of June, and />, E, E, <&c., 
at intervals of ten days.f Then, as before, C, A, and Jl 
(p. 185), represent the positions of the colonies on the 1st 
of June, and the other columns, their places on the 10th, 
20th, &c. Now, let /and II represent the nuclei—I use 
* Those who rely entirely on natural swarming, may often secure fertile queons 
by catching the supernumerary young queens of after-swarms (p. 122), and hiving 
them, with a few bees, in any small box containing a piece of worker-comb. 
t Of course, no one will imagine, that operations which depend so much op 
season, climate, and weather, can always bo conducted with the mathematical 
accuracy with which they »re set forth in such an illustration. 
