SWARMING AND HIVING. 53 
the bees should change their intentions, and decide not 
to swarm, and destroy all the queen cells. Remember, 
they are having it all their own way. When these cells 
are sealed over and finished is the time (if everything is 
favorable) when the first swarm leaves, led oft by the 
old queen. Some of the most reliable works on bees 
have taught that the queen cells must be half finished 
before the queen will deposit the egg that is to produce 
the queen; but this I find by close observation is a 
mistake ; for if you take the queen away from a stock, 
with no queen cells in any stage of formation in the hive, 
the bees will rear a queen from a worker egg, deposited 
in an ordinary worker cell. And who shall say they do 
not do this when the queen is present’ I am satisfied 
they do. 
Thus we see in natural swarming, with the dees left 
to themselves, the old queen leaves with the first swarm 
at about the time the queen cells, are sealed over and 
finished, which is about eight days before the young — 
queens hatch. 
When the young queens hatch, after-swarms (as second 
and third issues, or all after the first,) will issue. Second 
swarms may be expected in about eight days after the 
first. This time will somewhat vary, as the hatching of 
the queen sometimes depends on the weather, the num- 
ber of bees left in the old stock, etc.; a low temperature 
retards the hatching, while a high temperature for- 
wards it. 
