i6o 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
queens than one is accounted for in one of two 
ways : Either two or three, perhaps several, queens 
have been allowed to hatch ; or, during the excite- 
ment of colonising, some of the cells which had 
been guarded have been left, and the contained 
princesses have escaped, and flown immediately. 
The queens which leave their cells without inter- 
ruption so soon as they have carved their cocoons 
are not fit at once to take wing ; but those held 
back by the workers toughen and strengthen in 
confinement, and are able to fly the moment they 
are free. Last spring I raised in a stock a number 
of Carniolan queen-cells, which were all, save one, 
transferred to other colonies, while a queen was 
already at liberty in the hive. The latter I carried 
away on her comb to form a nucleus (see “ Nuclei ”). 
Returning to the stock, I lifted up the frame carrying 
the queen-cell, to judge of its condition. The queen 
had been kept back, but her guards, being dis- 
organised by the movement, permitted her escape, 
when she instantly flew, and the bees as immediately 
began to rise in a cloud from the opened hive, to 
form her attendants. They clustered in due form, 
and were as soon as possible returned. Here we 
note that the virgin queen went firsts the bees follow- 
ing ; that, as a delayed queen, she was strong for 
flight when hatched ; and, next, that the bees, un- 
aware of the loss of the queen at liberty, continued 
to so treat the one in the cell that she hastily left 
the colony, although she thus rendered it queenless. 
Why, also, did the bees, without an appreciable in- 
terval, follow her as a swarm ? Is not the conclusion 
