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 
