10 
bees per pound in weight ; the number of bees per pound varying 
according to the amount of food store they carry. See also 
Section (XI.). An artificial swarm would have more bees per 
pound (170). 
When the oldest of the young queens comes out of her cell, she 
will if permitted kill her younger sister 
12. Casts. queens. If prevented from doing so, she 
will quit the hive with a swarm consisting 
of the strongest of the bees remaining after the “* top’ swarm 
has left; this generally takes place on the eighth or ninth, 
day after the “top ”’ swarm has left, and this after swarm, or 
any subsequent swarm, is called a “‘ cast.” If not checked this 
may be repeated again and again as each young queen leaves 
its cell, and perhaps several queens hatched out on the same 
day will leave the hive with one cast. In this latter case, 
if the cast is hived, all the queens except one will be 
killed. 
As repeated swarming exhausts the parent stock, rendering it 
absolutely unprofitable for a long period, 
13. Prevention of it should be prevented; this can be done 
Casts. effectually by adopting the practices recom- 
mended in paragraphs (95) and (96) for 
the treatment of swarms. If, however, this cannot be done, 
owing to the sale or loss of the top swarm, all queen cells except 
one, which should preferably be an uncapped queen cell contain- 
ing larva, should be removed from the combs when the first 
swarm issues; and if a second swarm issues, remove all queen 
cells, and return the after swarm or cast to the parent stock 
on the evening of the day it issued (76). 
The young queen in the parent stock does not lay until about 
seventeen to twenty-one days after the top 
14. Time when swarm has left, before which all the worker 
young mated Queen brood will be hatched out; so that if a 
will lay Eggs. hive is examined on the twenty-first day 
after swarming, no worker brood except 
possibly eggs will be found. It is important that this should 
be borne in mind when transferring bees from fixed-combs into. 
frame hives, for if this is done on the twenty-first day after the 
top swarm has left, no worker brood can be lost. 
Bees generally work within about a mile of the hive, but if 
the supply of honey within that area is in- 
15. Range of Flight sufficient, they will go further, but rarely 
of Bees. beyond two miles from the hive. On 
returning they fly straight to the exact 
spot on which their hive stood, and many would be unable to 
find or recognise it if, during their absence, it had been removed 
even the short distance of six feet ; this should be borne in mind 
when for any purpose a hive is moved from its place (182). It 
should only be moved when the bees have ceased flying for the 
day, and by short stages of four feet when there is only one hive, 
