FORMATION OF SWARMS. 
35 
the remaining workers set another 
queen at liberty and treat her with 
equal indifference as the other, aud 
drive her from the royal cells: she 
also, perpetually harrassed, becomes 
agitated, departs, and carries a new 
swarm along with her. 
In a populous hive, this scene is re¬ 
peated three or four times during the 
spring. The number of bees being 
then so much reduced, they are no 
longer capable of preserving a strict 
watch over the royal cells: several 
females are thus enabled to leave 
their confinement at oncej they seek 
each other, fight, and the queen at 
