SWARMING AND HIVING. 163 



they are thus acknowledged, early in the afternoon, at which 

 hour the drones are flying in the greatest numbers. On 

 first leaving their hive, they always fly with their heads turn- 

 ed towards it, and enter and depart often several times before 

 they finally soar up into the air. Such precautions on the 

 part of a young Queen, are highly necessary that she may 

 not mistake her own hive on her return, and lose her life by 

 attempting to enter that of another colony. Mistakes of 

 this kind are frequently made when the hives stand near, 

 and closely resemble each other, and are fatal, not only to 

 the Queen, but to her whole colony. In the new hive there 

 is no brood at all, and in the old one it is too far advanced 

 towards maturity to answer for raising new Queens. How 

 such calamities are to be prevented, or remedied, I shall 

 show in the Chapter on the Loss of the Queen. 



When a young Queen leaves the hive for the porpose 

 above mentioned, the bees, on missing her, are often filled 

 with alarm, and rush from the hive, just as though they were 

 intending to swarm. Their agitation soon calms down, if 

 she returns to them in safety. I shall give, through the 

 medium of the Latin tongue, some statements which are 

 important only to the scientific naturalist, and entomologist. 



Post coitum fucus statim perit. Penis ejectio, ut ego com- 

 peri, lenem compressionem fuci ventris, consequitur ; et 

 fucus extemplo similis fulmine tacto, moritur. Dominus 

 Huber seepe videbat fuci organum post congressum, in cor- 

 pore feminse hsesisse. Vidi semel tam firme inhaerens, ut 

 nisi disruptione reginse ventris, non possim divellere. 



The Queen commences laying eggs, about two days after 

 impregnation, 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. It is seldom until 

 after she has commenced replenishing the cells with eggs. 



