FORMATION OF SWARMS. 48 
that they will invariably find eggs in them, which certainly could not 
be the case if it was accompanied by a young queen, I have found 
eggs in the cells on the second day after the swarm entered the hive. 
Or-let the old colony be suffocated immediately after the first swarm 
leaves the hive, and there can no matured queen be found, I have on 
several occasions taken the bees out of the hive on the second day 
after a first swarm had left it, and in no case did it possess an old 
queen, but in every instance from one to five queens in an embryo 
state. It is not unusual for a first swarm to produce young bees in 
twenty-two or twenty-three days after being hived. Ihave myself 
had ocular demonstration of it in my own hives. In my estimate 
on the number of bees produced by a single queen during a season, I 
have put the number higher than some authors, but I think they 
will be found to be very near the mark in most instances. It is true 
that different stocks vary materially in the amount of bees pro- 
duced during a season. Some queens will produce fully dotible the 
amount that others will. I have also estimated the numbers in a first 
swarm larger than Mr. Miner and some others. But the number re- 
maining in the parent hive after swarming, I have put at less. I have 
made my estimates from observation. I have in a large number of 
instances driven the old stock from their hive a few days after they 
had thrown off a swarm, and have always found that there were not 
more than one third as many bees remaining as had left with the 
swarm. And I have been able to judge pretty correctly as to their 
numbers, as in both instances the bees were in my hives, that afford- 
ed an opportunity to see what amount there was in each. 
Dr. Bevan remarks, that “the laying of drone eggs, which is called 
the great laying, usually commences at the end of April or the be- 
ginning of May; that there seems to be asecret relation between 
the production of these eggs, and the construction of royal cells; for 
regularly on the 20th or 21st day, (if at all), royal cells are founded. 
About the time when the larva hatched from the eggs laid by the queen, 
in the royal cells, are ready to be transformed to nymphs, (sometimes 
sooner, sometimes later, depending on circwmstances,) this queen generally 
leaves the hive, conducting a swarm along with her.” 
As has been stated, a first swarm is always led off by the old 
