110 TREATISE ON THE 
construct royal cells; and if, in these cir- 
cumstances, the weather’ be favorable, a 
swarm may be formed, and the same queen 
depart at its head. Nor is this variation in 
the swarming operations restricted to the 
instance of the old queen, Ihave known two 
or three instanees in which a young queen, 
that is a queen of the current year, after lead- 
ing off as in ordinary circumstances, has also 
led off an after swarm from her new habi- 
tation. This fact, which it must be ac- 
knowledged occurs very seldom, is at vari- 
ance with the doctrine of Huber, that the 
young queen lays the eggs of workers only 
for eleven months successively. He admits, 
though not very explicitly, that a queen 
hatched in spring may lay fifty or sixty drone 
eggs during the course of the ensuing sum- 
mer; but he refers to the swarm led forth by 
the old queen, exclusively, when he speaks 
of its producing a new colony in the same 
season, in the course of a month after its first 
departure. Wit respect to the eleven 
months, it certainly consists with my own 
