224 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



the comb ; and further, the long sterile interregnum between 

 the date of the first swarm and the impregnation of the second 

 queen, &c. 



Of these faults the gravest, the only one which in our 

 climates is invariably fatal, is the repeated swarming. But 

 here we must bear in mind that the natural selection of 

 the domestic bee has for thousands of years been thwarted 

 by man. From the Egyptian of the time of Pharaoh to 

 the peasant of our own day, the bee-keeper has always 

 acted in opposition to the desires and advantages of the race. 

 The most prosperous hives are those which throw only one 

 swarm after the beginning of summer. They have fulfilled 

 their maternal duties, assured the maintenance of the stock 

 and the necessary renewal of queens ; they have guaranteed 

 the future of the swarm, which, being precocious and ample 

 in numbers, has time to erect solid and well-stored dwellings 

 before the arrival of autumn. If left to themselves, it is 

 clear that these hives and their offshoots would have been 

 the only ones to survive the rigours of winter, which would 

 almost invariably have destroyed the colonies animated by 

 different instincts ; and the law of restricted swarming would 

 therefore by slow degrees have established itself in our 

 northern races. But it is precisely these prudent, opulent, 

 acclimatised hives that man has always destroyed in order 

 to possess himself of their treasure. He has permitted only 

 — he does so to this day in ordinary practice — the feeblest 

 colonies to survive ; degenerate stock, secondary or tertiary 

 swarms, which have just barely sufficient food to subsist 

 through the winter, or whose miserable store he will supple- 

 ment perhaps with a few droppings of honey. The result 



