42, FORMATION OF SWARMS. 
of some eight thousand or ten thousand more, still leaving a popula- 
tion in the hive, on the first of September, of double the number it 
contained on the first of February. 
Now, supposing they throw off but one swarm, and that should 
contain twenty thousand bees; and the addition to the old stock 
amounts to four thousand more, making an increase of twenty-four 
thousand in five months, this would make the average number per 
day about one hundred and sixty; but as a much less number of eggs 
are laid in the months of February and March, than in April and 
May, it would readily appear that the queen must, during these 
months, produce some two hundred or three hundred eggs daily. 
After the queen has finished her principal laying of worker eggs, 
she increases in size and moves sluggishly, when she commences lay- 
ing drone eggs in cells prepared for their reception ; she generally lays 
drone eggs for three or four weeks. About the commencement of 
the third week the workers prepare the royal cells, from three to ten 
in number, in which the queen deposits eggs at intervals of a few 
days, so as to mature at the time they would be required, in case 
more than one swarm should issue. These young queens are never 
permitted to leave their cells, (except in extreme cases of foul weather,) 
until the first swarm has left, which in all cases is led off by the old 
queen. If, on account of unfavorable weather, swarming is deferred 
beyond the time anticipated by the bees, the young queens are not 
permitted to emerge from their cells, but are guarded and held prisoners 
and fed by the workers until the old queen leaves with a swarm. If, 
however, the unfavorable weather should continue for several succes- 
sive days, the young queen in some instances becomes impatient, and 
will burst from her cell, when she soon falls a victim to her mother’s 
wrath, for there is such a deadly hatred implanted in the mother 
queen, that she will, if permitted, eagerly devour her own offspring. 
This, I think, probably is the cause why in some instances hives that 
are filled with bees to overflowing, do not swarm. Many have enter- 
tained doubts as to the certainty of the old queen's invariably leaving 
the parent hive with first swarms. I would say to any one who doubts 
this, to examine the combs in the hive ofa first swarm on the second or 
third day after it has taken possession ofa hive, and they may be assured 
