192 AUSTRALASIAN 
queen cells were closed, then the first young queen will emerge 
in eight or nine days, and in the meantime the stock will have 
been recruited by a large number of young bees. If they still 
feel themselves over-strong, or are still actuated by a desire for . 
swarming, the first young queens may go off with one or more 
after-swarms or “casts ;” if not, the first out will remain in 
possession of the hive, and all the others will be destroyed in 
their cells. In five or six days more the young queen will 
probably be fertilised, and shortly after will begin to lay eggs. 
This is the natural course of the swarming, which provides for 
a multiplication of the self-sustaining stocks or colonies, and at 
the same time for a succession of young queens. 
THE SWARMING SEASON. 
The time of year when first swarms may be expected depends 
upon the climate, season, and strength of the colonies. In New 
Zealand, in the northern part of the province of Auckland, they 
sometimes issue as early as September; at the Thames it is 
usually the middle or latter part of October before the earliest 
come off ; while further South it is later still. Swarms should 
be expected all through the months of November and December, 
and even up to the middle or end of January. 
As to the Australian colonies, I have taken care to obtain 
the best information I could upon this as well as other apicul- 
tural matters, from bee-keeping correspondents, to whom I 
have already expressed my acknowledgments, and the general 
result is as follows. In Queensland, with its nearly tropical 
climate, the swarming season continues from mid-August to 
mid-April ; the great difficulty there is to check the swarming 
tendency and keep the stocks strong enough to collect a fair 
return of surplus honey. Mr. Fullwood mentions cases of 
increase in one year elevenfold. In New South Wales the 
ordinary swarming season is given as October to December ; but 
in some parts it begins in September and lasts till February. 
In South Australia, as Mr. Bonney informs me, the regular 
swarming season is September and October, but in good seasons 
the bees swarm again in December and January. He has 
known stocks to increase by natural swarming in eighteen 
months, from one to thirteen. In Victoria the season varies, 
but in some of its northern parts swarming has been known to 
