SWARMING. 193 



as commenced ■work in the spring. That young bees 

 leave, any one may be satisfied on seeing a swarm 

 issue; a great many too young and weak to fly 

 will drop down in front of the hive, having come out 

 now for the first time, and perhaps some of them had 

 not been out of the cell an hour ; these' very young 

 bees are known by the color. 



CAUSE OF THE QTJBBN's INABILITY TO FLY BUGGESTED. 



The old queen often gets down in the same way ; 

 but I would assign another cause for her inability to, 

 fly ; that is, I would suggest it to be her burden of 

 eggs. 



EVIDENCE OP THE OLD QUEEN's LEAVING. 



That the old queen does leave with the first swarm 

 is indicated by several things: one^is, eggs may often 

 be found on the board the next morning ; another, 

 when the first swarm has left, and before any of these 

 royal cells hatch, the bees may be driven out and no 

 queen will be found, or you may drive out the bees at 

 the end of three weeks, and the brood of workers will 

 be about all hatched, the drone brood not quite as 

 near. The combs may also contain some eggs, and 

 perhaps some very young larvae, that have been de- 

 posited by the young queen, which begins to lay usu- 

 ally sixteen or eighteen days after the first swarm. 

 This shows a cessation of laying eggs for about two 

 weeks. First swarms will have eggs in the cells as 

 soon as they are made to hold them, which is often 

 within 24 hours after being hived ; occasionally a new 

 piece of comb will fall down, and, if the cells are deep 

 9 



