1 84 THE HONEY-BEE. 



one queen has come forth. It is best then to search 

 for one or more, and to remove them, to be used, if 

 necessary, in other hives, and then to unite the 

 separate clusters. 



To third and later swarms from the same hive, 

 the fanciful names of " colts " and " fillies " have been 

 given, but they are going out of general use. 



Swarms subsequent to the first are usually less 

 than it in amount of bees. For this reason it is 

 advisable not to make them into separate stocks, 

 unless very strong, but either, after removing the 

 queen, to return them to the parent hive, or to unite 

 two or more casts, so as to form one strong colony. 

 It may be remarked that there is this advantage 

 about a cast, that all the bees, queen included, are 

 young, and so are likely to work with vigour ; and 

 if sent off early in the season, and naturally or 

 artificially strong in numbers, they may become a 

 powerful community : but everything will depend 

 upon the two conditions just mentioned. 



Where it is not really wished to increase the 

 number of stocks, it is much better to prevent 

 " casting," by cutting out all queen-cells five or 

 six days after the first swarm. The reason of the 

 delay in the operation is, that, by that time, all eggs 

 and larvae left by the old queen will have advanced 

 to a stage at which the workers cannot convert them 

 into queens, even if they desire to do so. 



Another reason, besides the weakness of after 

 swarms, why efforts should be made to prevent 

 casting is, that the old stock often becomes, by the 

 swarming mania, too greatly diminished in popula- 

 tion to prosper, and a double loss is incurred — loss 



