148 SWARMING AND HIVING. 



How wonderfully abiding the impression made upon an 

 insect, which in a moment causes it to lose all its strong affec- 

 tion for the old home in which it was bred, and which it has 

 entered, perhaps hundreds of times ; so that when estab- 

 lished in another hive, though only a few feet distant, it sel- 

 dom pays the slightest attention to its former abode ! Often, 

 when the hive into which the new swarm is put, is not 

 removed from the place where the bees were hived, until 

 some have gone to the fields, on their return, they fly for 

 hours, in ceaseless circles about the spot where the missing 

 hive stood. I have known them to continue the vain search 

 for their companions until they have, at length, dropped down 

 from utter exhaustion, and perished in close proximity to their 

 old homes ! 



It has been already stated that the old Queen, if the 

 weather is favorable, generally leaves about the time that 

 the young Queens are sealed over, to be changed into 

 nymphs. In about a week, one of these Queens hatches, 

 and the question must now be decided whether any more 

 colonies are to be sent out that season, or not. If the hive 

 is well filled with bees, and the season in all respects prom- 

 ising, this question is generally decided in the afSrmative ; 

 although colonies often refuse to swarm more than once, 

 when they are very strong, and when we can assign no rea- 

 son for such a course ; and they sometimes swarm repeated- 

 ly, to the utter ruin of both the old stock, and the after- 

 swarms. 



If the bees decide not to swarm again, the first hatched 

 Queen is allowed to have her own way. She rushes imme- 

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

 From some observations that I have made, I am inclined to 

 think that the other bees aid her in this murderous trans- 

 ikctian ; they ceftainly tear open the cradles of the slaugh- 



