Ad FORMATION OF SWARMS. 
queen ; and Huber remarks, that this is a wise provision ofnature, for, 
being the strongest, she would never fail to overthrow the younger 
competitors for the throne, near which “ the jealous Semiramis of the 
hive will bear no rival.” Dr. Bevan observes, that the queen having 
finished her laying of male eggs, and her deposition of female eggs, 
in the royal cells, prior to leaving the old hive, is ready to commence 
in the new one with the laying of worker eges; workers being first 
needed in order to secure the continuance and prosperity of the newly- 
founded commonwealth. The bees that remain in the old hive have 
been supposed to guard with peculiar care the royal cells, in order to 
prevent the young queens, successively hatched, from leaving them, 
except at intervals of several days from each departure of a swarm, 
or at the moment of swarming. The law of primogeniture is always 
strictly observed towards these royal insects, “ the first-born, or prin- 
cess royal, being always selected to assume the sovereignty over the 
new colony, or if vacant, to occupy the throne in its native home; 
and so on with respect to the third and fourth, or whatever number 
may issue. Then after swarms, however, particularly the later ones, 
are often accompanied by more than one princess, several of them 
frequently obtaining their liberty at the same time, owing, in all 
probability, to the guards no longer keeping a strict watch over them, 
in consequence of the bustle of swarming. In these cases, the victo- 
rious in conflict assumes thé sovereignty over the new colony.” - 
According to Huber, the queen ordinarily lays about twelve thousand 
eqgs in two months ; one impregnation serving for the whole comple- 
ment of eggs, of every description, which she lays during two years 
at least. Reaumer states the number off eggs laid by a queen in two 
months at double the number that Huber did. Schirach says that a 
queen will lay from seventy thousand to one hundred thousand in a 
season; and it is my opinion that some queens do produce that amount . 
of eggs in a favorable season. ; 
The testimony of Huber, Bevan, and several other naturalists and 
apiarians, goes to prove thatif the impregnation of the queen is by any 
means retarded beyond the twenty-first day of her life, instead of lay- 
ing worker and drone eggs, as is usually the case, she commences lay- 
ing drone eggs on the 45th hour, and lays no other during her life-time, 
