THOUSAND ANSWERS 237 
cell looked just like any other bee. It is quite possible that it was 
a worker. Sometimes a worker crawls into a queen-cell after the 
queen has left it, although the capping of the cell looks as if the 
queen has not yet emerged. If that was the case, then the queen 
was left in the hive and the colony is all right. You cannot be cer- 
tain about the queen by the carrying of pollen. If you do not find 
eggs in the hive about 10 days after the last swarm issued, or at 
least in two weeks, you may decide the colony is queenless, in 
which case you will give it a queen, unless you prefer to unite it 
with the weakest afterswarm. The chances are that both after- 
swarms have queens all right. The likelihood is that they will 
build up without any help from the first swarm, which can be left 
undisturbed at its work of gathering honey. Of course, if the bees 
do not gather enough for winter you will have to feed. It is not 
likely you will have any d'fficulty in telling a queen when you see 
one, by its greater size, especially length. No need to go over 
your hives for queen-cells now, after swarming is over. 
Swarm Prevention. — Q. Do you like to destroy all queen-cells 
but one, or clip the queen’s wings for the prevention of swarming? 
A. To prevent a prime swarm, neither one will answer. De- 
stroying not merely all but one, but all cells, will generally delay 
swarming, and sometimes prevent it, but too often the bees will 
swarm in spite of cell killing. Clipping the queen doesn’t have 
the slightest effect in preventing swarming. All it does is to pre- 
vent the queen from flying with the swarm, and when the bees 
find that the queen is not with them they return to the hive. But 
if the beekeeper docs not interfere, the bees will swarm just as 
soon as a young queen is reared. 
Q. Will a young queen swarm out after she commences to 
lay? I can’t remember having had one do so where I knew the 
queen to be a young one. Some writers claim a queen never 
lays drone-eggs the first season, and I never found queen-cells 
started in a normal colony without more or less drone-brood in 
evidence. 
A. The answer to your question must be a little mixed. If 
you allow a young queen to be reared in a hive, you may count 
on no swarming before the next season. If you introduce a young 
queen, it depends. If the colony is in no humor for swarming at 
the time the queen is introduced, then no swarming. If in the 
swarming humor already, they’ll swarm in spite of the tender 
youth of the queen. I once had a queen swarm in less than a 
