The Cycle of the Year 
69 
Parent colony. 
This name is usually given to that part of the original 
colony which remains in the hive after the swarm issues. 
It is misleading in that the actual parent of the individual 
bees, the queen, departs with the first swarm but, as ordinarily 
used, the term indicates merely the colony from which the 
swarm issues and is not misunderstood. The course of 
events in this colony will now be given, it being assumed 
that, in the present instance, another swarm will not be 
cast. In a few days (often about eight days) after the de¬ 
parture of the swarm, the first young queen emerges from 
her cell by gnawing her way out, often with the help of the 
workers. 1 She may destroy the other queens by gnawing 
into their cells, so that she is without a rival in the colony, 
and she may be assisted in this destruction by the workers. 
Mating flight. 
When a few days old, the time depending somewhat on 
the weather and the race of bees, the virgin queen flies 
from the hive for the first time. Her early flights, often 
several in number, resemble the first flights of worker bees 
for she circles about the entrance, gradually venturing farther 
away, apparently taking note of the location of the hive. 
At last when from five to eight days old, she flies quickly 
from the hive without preliminary circling and flies upward 
in larger and larger circles, often until she is lost to vision. 2 
1 Before the queen emerges, the bees frequently gnaw away part of the 
capping of the queen cell, making it thinner and smooth. As the virgin 
queen cuts her way out she may be fed by worker bees. In cutting the 
queen cell, it frequently happens that a circular cut is made and at one place 
the capping is left intact, forming a kind of flap. After the queen emerges 
this flap may spring back into place, confusing the beekeeper who sometimes 
does not recognize the cell as an empty one. 
2 In the summer of 1903, the author and an equally ardent co-worker 
made a series of observations on the flight of virgin queens in the vivarium 
of the Zoological Department of the University of Pennsylvania. Small 
nuclei were placed about the room, which is covered with a glass roof, and 
a full colony was so arranged that the workers could fly freely to the outside 
but the drones could leave only to the inside. The drones used had never 
