128 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



collected around her in very large numbers. After 

 remaining in the air a short time, she returned to the 

 entrance of her hive, exhibiting to the spectators the 

 organs of the drone still protruding from her body. 



The queen usually begins laying about two days after 

 impregnation, and for the first season, lays almost entirely 

 the eggs of workers ; no males* being needed in colonies 

 which will throw no swarm till another season. She is 

 seldom treated with much attention by the bees until after 

 she has begun to replenish the cells with eggs; although 

 if previously deprived of her, they show, by their despair, 

 that they fully appreciated her importance to their welfare. 



A iirst swarm will sometimes swaim again, about a 

 month after it is hived ; but in Northern climates this is a 

 rare occurrence. In South-western Texas, I have known 

 even second swarms to do the same thing, and colonies 

 often swarm there in September and October, while in 

 tropical climates, swarms issue at any season when forage 

 is abundant. la our Northern and Middle States, swarm- 

 ing is usually over, three or four Aveeks after it begins. 

 Inexperienced bee-keepers, unaware of this, often watch 

 their Apiaries, long after the swarming season has passed. 



I shall now, while giving such directions for hiving 

 swarms as may aid even some experienced Apiarians, at- 

 tempt to make them sufficiently minute to guide those. 



her ; so that she is not molested, even if thousands are members of the same 

 colony with herself. 



* Huber supposed that male eggs were not developed in her ovaries until the 

 second year; but as the sex depends upon the impregnation.of the eggs, he was 

 evidently mistaken. In warm climates, where after-swarms swarm again, drones 

 are bred in large numbers in hives having young queens. The bee is evidently a 

 native of a hot climate, although it can live wherever there is a Summer long 

 enough for it to prepare for "Winter. Its complete development, however, can be 

 witnessed only in tropical regions, and I am persuaded that many things which, 

 .in colder climates, have been regarded as fixed laws, are only exceptional adap- 

 tations to unfavorable circumstances. 



