PRIMARY SWARM. 225 



Those who have plenty of good worker-comb, will un- 

 questionably find it to their advantage to use it in the place 

 of comb-foundation (674) or artificial guides. Those who 

 use the guides (319), should examine a swarm two or 

 three days after it is hived, when, by a little management, 

 any irregularities in their combs may be easily corrected. 

 Some combs may need a little compression, to bring them 

 into their proper positions, and others may even require to 

 be cut out, and fastened as guides in other frames ; but no 

 pains should be spared to see that they are all right, before 

 the work has gone so far as to make it laborious to remedy 

 any defects. If a swarm is small, it ought to be confined, by 

 a movable partition (34:9), to such a space in the hive as 

 it can occupy with comb — as well for its encouragement, as 

 to economize its animal heat. Varro, who flourished before 

 the Christian Era, says (Liber III, Cap. xviii), that bees 

 become dispirited, when placed in hives that are too large. 



Primary Swarm vtith a Young Queen. 



443. We have already stated (157) that queens die of 

 old age, when about four years old. If the preparations for 

 queen rearing (489) are begun during the swarming sea- 

 son, from this cause, or by her death through accident, or 

 because she has been removed by the Apiarist, it very 

 often happens that bees prevent the first hatched queen 

 from destroying her rivals (112), and the result is that a 

 swarm leaves the hive with her. These primary swarms with 

 young queens, are cast as unexpectedly, and may be as 

 strong as those that are accompanied by the old queen. 

 They have that in common with secondary swarms, that 

 they behave like them, both in their exit and afterwards. 

 15 



