116 SWARMING. 



recorded of five swarms being thrown off and 

 hived before the end of July from planting one 

 single stock ; the season was favourable, and the 

 situation, (High Armaside in Lorton), particularly 

 so. They were not all thrown off from the first 

 or parent stock, but from that and the earliest 

 swarm. Bosc, the French consul in Carolina, has 

 stated that he had eleven swarms in one season 

 from a single stock; and that each of those swarms, 

 during the same season, threw off the same num- 

 ber of secondary ones ! ! ! ! The space which usually 

 intervenes between the first and second swarm is 

 from seven to nine days ; between the second and 

 third, the period is shorter; and if there should be 

 a fourth, it may depart the day after that which 

 precedes it. 



This succession of swarms must be owing to 

 the great number of young queens that obtain 

 their liberty. As they greatly weaken the parent 

 stock, and are naturally weak themselves, the 

 only resource under such circumstances is the 

 union of two or more of the swarms into one 

 family. 



March is the month in which the grand laying of 

 the queen usually commences ; yet when January 

 proves mild, the breeding will sometimes begin 

 at the latter end of that month, and it is by no 

 means an uncommon thing for the commencement 

 to happen in February. The queen-bee may 



