The Cycle of the Year 69 



Parent colony. 



This name is usually given to that part of the original 

 colony which remains in the hive after the swarm issues. 

 It is misleading in that the actual parent of the individual 

 bees, the queen, departs with the first swarm but, as ordinarily 

 used, the term indicates merely the colony from which the 

 swarm issues and is not misunderstood. The course of 

 events ui this colony will now be given, it being assumed 

 that, in the present instance, another swarm will not be 

 cast. In a few days (often about eight days) after the de- 

 parture of the swarm, the first young queen emerges from 

 her cell by gnawing her way out, often with the help of the 

 workers.* She may destroy the other queens by gnawing 

 into their cells, so that she is without a rival in the colony, 

 and she may be assisted in this destruction by the workers. 



Mating flight. 



When a few days old, the time depending somewhat on 

 the weather and the race of bees, the virgin queen flies 

 from the hive for the first time. Her early flights, often 

 several in number, resemble the first flights of worker bees 

 for she circles about the entrance, gradually venturing farther 

 away, apparently taking note of the location of the hive. 

 At last when from five to eight days old, she flies quickly 

 from the hive without preliminary circling and flies upward 

 in larger and larger circles, often until she is lost to vision.^ 



' Before the queen emerges, the bees frequently gnaw away part of the 

 capping of the queen cell, making it thinner and smooth. As the virgin 

 queen cuts her way out she may be fed by worker bees. In cutting the 

 queen cell, it frequently happens that a circular cut is made and at one place 

 the capping is left intact, forming a kind of flap. After the queen emerges 

 this flap may spring back into place, confusing the beekeeper who sometimes 

 does not recognize the cell as an empty one. 



' In the summer of 1903, the author and an equally ardent co-worker 

 made a series of observations on the flight of virgin queens in the vivarium 

 of the Zoological Department of the University of Pennsylvania. Small 

 nuclei were placed about the room, which is covered with a glass roof, and 

 a full colony was so arranged that the workers could fly freely to the outside 

 but the drones could leave only to the inside. The drones used had never 



