128 THE HIVE AND HONET-BEE. 



coUected around her in very large mim'bers. After 

 remaining in the' air a short time, she returned to tlie 

 entrance of her hive, exhibiting to the spectators the 

 organs of-the drone still protruding from her body. 



The queen usually begms laying about two days after 

 hnpregnation, and for the first season, lays almost entirely 

 the eggs of workers; no males* being needed in colonies 

 which will throw no swarm till another season. She is 

 seldom treated with much attention by the bees until after 

 she has begun to replenish the cells with eggs; although 

 if previously depiived of her, they show, by their despak, 

 that they fully appreciated her importance to their welfare. 

 A fiirst swarm will sometimes swarm again, about a 

 month after it is hived ; but in JTorthem climates this is a 

 rare occurrence. In South-western Texas, I have known 

 even second swarms to do the same thing, and colonies 

 often swarm there in September and October, while in 

 tropical climates, swarms issue at any season when forage 

 is abundant. In our JSTorthem and Middle States, swarm- 

 ing is usually over, three or four weeks after it begms. 

 Inexperienced bee-keepers, unaware of this, often watch 

 their Apiaries, long after the swarming season has passed. 

 I shall now, while giving such directions for hiving 

 swarms as may aid even some experienced Apiarian*, at- 

 tempt to make them sufficiently minute to guide those, 



her ; so that she is not molested, even if thousands are members of the same 

 colony with herself. 



* Huber supposed that male eggs were not developed in her ovaries until the 

 second year; but as the sex depends upon the impregnation of the eggs, he- was 

 evidently mistaken. In warm climates, where after-swarms swarm again, drones 

 are bred in large numbers in hives having yonng queens. The bee is evidently a 

 native of a hot climate, although it can live wlierever there is a- Summer long 

 enough for it to prepare for Winter. Its complete development, however, can be 

 witnessed only in tropical regions, and I am persuaded that many things which, 

 in colder climates, have been regarded as fixed laws, are only exceptional adap- 

 tations to unfavorable circumstances. 



