230 NATURAL SWARMING. 



tionably find it to their advantage to use it in the place of 

 comb-foundation. If a swarm is small, it ought to be con- 

 fined, by a movable partition (349), to such a space in the 

 hive as it can occupy with comb, as well for its encouragement, 

 as to economize its animal heat. Varro, who flourished before 

 the Christian Era, says (Liber III, Cap. xviii), that bees be- 

 come dispirited, when placed in hives that are too large. 



Primary Swarm with" a Young Queen. 



443. We have already stated (157) that queens die of 

 old age, when about four years old. If the preparations for 

 queen rearing (489) are begun during the swarming season, 

 from this cause, or by her death through accident, or because 

 she has been removed by the Apiarist, it very often happens 

 that bees prevent the first hatched queen from destroying her 

 rivals (112), and the result is that a swarm leaves the hive 

 with her. These primary swarms with young queens, are cast 

 as unexpectedly, and m^ be as strong as those that are ac- 

 companied by the old queen. They have that in common with 

 secondary swarms, that they behave like them, both in their 

 exit and afterwards. 



Secondary or After-Swarms. 



444:. Having described the method commonly pursued for 

 hiviag a new swarm, we return to the parent-colony from 

 which they emigrated. 



From the immense number which have abandoned it, we 

 should naturally infer that it must be nearly depopulated. To 

 those who limited the fertility of the queen to four hundred 

 eggs a day, the rapid replenishing of a hive, after swarm- 

 ing, must have been inexplicable; but to those who have seen 

 her lay from one to four thousand eggs a day, it is no mystery 

 at all (40). Enough bees remain to carry on the domestic 



