THE QUEEN. 13 
directly in the royal cradles, is not known. I believe 
she has never been seen to do so. I have myself many 
-times kept watch to see how, and by whom this is done, 
without determining it. But be this as it may, whether 
laid there by the queen, or carried thither by the work- 
ers, aS some suppose, that they are found there, and the 
embryo queens capped over while the old queen yet re- 
mains in the hive, is conclusively established. Before 
this time, all the breeding cells are occupied, either with 
honey, bee-bread, or brood, and the queen, becoming 
restless, perhaps from this cause, day by day moves more 
and more rapidly over the combs. The workers, too, 
partaking of the excitement, at first a few, their numbers 
gradually increasing, are seen running rapidly over the 
combs, striking their antenne upon each other, until 
finally, as if by preconcert, rushing to the honey cells, 
unclosing many that have been sealed over, they fill 
themselves with their precious stores as eagerly as if they 
momentarily expected a writ of ejectment to be served 
upon them, and this was their last chance. During this 
scene within, all is unusually quiet wethout the hive ; 
while such bees as have been lying about the entrance, 
driven thither by the great heat or numbers within, now 
gradually wend their way back, whether to take their 
places in the old or new colony we will not stop to 
inquire. After each bee has taken on as large a load as 
it can carry, at the “appointed time, wind and weather 
permitting,” they rush, pell-mell, from the hive, pouring 
out, and off the alighting board, like running water, many 
a greedy fellow falling to the ground from mere inability 
to fly with its too great self-imposed burden. 
Swarming.— The queen usually leads out the first 
swarm from the second to the fourth day after the work- 
