120 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



After the tumult of swarming is over, not a bee that 

 did not participate in it, attempts to join the new colony, 

 and not one that did, seeks to return. What determines 

 some to go, and others to stay, we hare no certain means 

 of knowing. How wonderful must be the impression 

 made upon an insect, to cause it in a few minutes so com- 

 pletely to lose its strong affection for the old home, that 

 when established in a hive only a few feet distant, it pays 

 not the slightest attention to its former abode ! When 

 their new domicile is removed — after some have gone to 

 the fields — from the place where the bees were hived, on 

 their return, they often fly for hours in ceaseless circles 

 about the spot where the missing hive stood ; and somv- 

 times continue the vain search for their companions, until 

 dropping from exhaustion, they perish in close proximity 

 to their old home. 



It has already been stated thM, if the weather is favor- 

 able, the old queen usually leaves near the time that 

 the young queens are sealed over to be changed into 

 nymphs. In about a week, one of them hatches ; and the 

 question must be decided whether or not, any more col- 

 onies shall be formed that season. If the hive is well 

 filled with bees, and the season is in all respects promising, 

 it is generally decided in the affirmative ; although, under 

 such circumstances, some very strong colonies refiise to 

 swarm more than once ; while the repeated swarming of 

 weaker ones often ruins both the parent-stock and its 

 after-swarms. 



If the bees decide to swai-m but once, th* first hatched 

 queen, being allowed to have her own way, rushes imme- 

 diately to the ceUs of her sisters, and stings them to death. 

 The other bees probably aid her in this murderous trans- 

 action ; they certainly tear open the cradles of the slaugli- 

 'ierei innocents (PI. XIV., Fig. 47, d), and remove them 



