The Young Queens 
77 
We will not follow these swarms on 
their numerous, and often most compli- 
cated adventures. "Two swarms, at times, 
will join forces; at others, two or three 
of the imprisoned queens will profit by 
the confusion attending the moment of 
departure to elude the watchfulness of their 
guardians and join the groups that are 
forming. Occasionally, too, one of the 
young queens, finding herself surrounded 
by males, will cause herself to be impreg- 
nated in the swarming flight, and will then 
drag all her people to an extraordinary 
height and distance. In the practice of 
apiculture these secondary and tertiary 
swarms are always returned to the mother- 
hive. The queens will meet on the comb; 
the workers will gather around and watch 
their combat; and, when the stronger has 
overcome the weaker, they will then, in their 
ardour for work and hatred of disorder, 
expel the corpses, close the door on the 
violence of the future, forget the past, 
217 
