SECONDARY SWARMS. 231 



operations of the hive; and as the old queen departs only 

 when there is a teeming population, and when thousands of 

 young are daily hatching, and tens of thousands rapidly ma- 

 turing, the hive, in a short time, is almost as populous as it 

 was before swarming. 



Those who suppose that the new colony consists wholly of 

 young bees, forced to emigrate by the older ones, if they 

 closely examine a new swarm, will find that while some have 

 the ragged wings of age, others are so young as to be barely 

 able to fly. 



After the tumult of swarming is over, not a bee that did 

 not participate in it, attempts to join the new colony, and 

 not one that did, seeks to return. What determines some to 

 go, and others to stay, we have no certain means of knowing. 

 How wonderful must be the impression made upon an insect, 

 to cause it in a few minutes so completely to lose its strong 

 affection for the old home, that when established in a hive 

 only a few feet distant, it pays not the slightest attention to 

 is former abode! 



445. It has already been stated that, if the weather is 

 favorable, the old queen usually leaves near the time that the 

 young queens are sealed over to be changed into nymphs. In 

 about a week, one of them hatches; and the question must be 

 decided whether or not, any more colonies shall be formed 

 that season. If the hive is well filled with bees, and the sea- 

 son is in all respects promising, it is generally decided in the 

 affirmative; although, under such circumstances, some very 

 strong colonies refuse to swarm more than once. 



If the bees of the parent-colony decide to prevent the first 

 hatched queen from killing the others, a strong guard is kept 

 over their cells, and as often as she approaches them with 

 murderous intent, she is bitten, or given to understand by 

 other most uncourtier-like demonstrations, that even a queen 

 cannot, in all things, do just as she pleases. 



446. About a week after first swarming, should the Apia- 

 rist place his ear against the hive, in the morning or evening, 



