THE MYSTERY OF THE SWARM 189 



dozen. Sometimes, however, the first of the 

 queens will be already hatched and wandering 

 over the combs, meeting, as usual at this stage 

 of her career, perfect indifference from all she 

 encounters. But hives have been known to send 

 off a swarm when the preparations for raising a 

 new queen have been scarcely begun. So variable 

 is the honey-bee in all her ways. 



If the objects of swarming were merely to 

 relieve the congestion in the hive, and to change 

 the mother- bee, the whole thing should now be 

 at an end. But the swarming impulse is rooted 

 in far deeper soil than mere expediency. With 

 some strains of bees the fever seems to die out 

 after the one attack, and the stock settles down 

 quietly to work for the rest of the season. But 

 more often than not this first taste of adventure 

 serves only to whet the national appetite for more. 

 About nine days after the first swarm leaves 

 another swarm often follows, and this may be 

 succeeded by a third or even a fourth at a few 

 days' interval, resulting in some cases in the almost 

 complete extinction of the stock. The old skep- 

 pists called the second swarm a " cast," the third 

 was a "colt," and the fourth a "filly." It is 

 difficult to understand how, in a community where 

 individual interest is so ruthlessly sacrificed to the 

 general good, this self- destructive policy should be 

 permitted. But taking the view that swarming 

 is in the main a vague and incomplete resurrection 



