bee-keeper's manual. 59 



cy, to so act that the end will be effected, for which 

 nature designed them. 



THE OLD aUEEN ALWAYS GOES OFF WITH THE FIRST 

 SWARM. 



It is not necessary, that the drones should appear in 

 force, until the second swarms issue ; for the reason, 

 that the old queen goes off with the first swarm. This 

 is another point, that has also been disputed ; yet it is a 

 fact, that can never be subverted. This is a circum- 

 stance, that may well excite our admiration. 



Nature is ever careful of the perpetuity of her species 

 of the animate creation ; and in the case of the bee, she 

 is not lacking in that wonderful chain of circumstances 

 that produces one harmonious result. 



In order to effect this object, viz : the sallying forth 

 of the old queens with the first swarms, nature implanted 

 an implacable enmity between all queens, from the mo- 

 ment of their existence ; and even so far, as to force the 

 mother to destroy her own progeny, before it emerges 

 from the cells. 



A young queen, that has not been out of her cell, 

 more than five minutes, rushes upon her sisters in roy- 

 alty, and wrests them from their tenements, while -yet 

 in the pupa state, but for the restraint held over her by 

 the workers, who stand in the defence of their young 

 sovereigns, and when a queen approaches, with deadly 

 aim, they seize her, and hold her a prisoner. This nat- 

 ural instinctive hatred of rivalry in queens, is the basis 

 ^Koii which the rationale of swarming rests. 



