120 
THE IIIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
After the tumult of swarming is over, not a bee that 
did not participate in it, attempts to join the new colony, 
and not one that did, seeks to return. What determines 
some to go, and others to stay, we have no certain means 
of knowing. How wonderful must be the impression 
made upon an insect, to cause it in a few minutes so com¬ 
pletely to lose its strong affection for the old home, that 
when established in a hive only a few feet distant, it pays 
not the slightest attention to its former abode! When 
their new domicile is removed—after some have gone to 
the fields — from the place where the bees were hived, on 
their return, they often fly for hours in ceaseless cire.?s 
about the spot where the missing hive stood ; and sonu • 
times continue the vain search for their companions, until 
dropping from exhaustion, they perish in close proximity 
to their old home. 
It has already been stated that, if the weather is favor¬ 
able, the old queen usually leaves near the time that 
the young queens are sealed over to be changed into 
nymphs. In about a week, one of them hatches ; and the 
question must be decided whether or not, any more col¬ 
onies shall be formed that season. If the hive is well 
filled with bees, and the season is in all respects promising, 
it is generally decided in the affirmative; although, under 
such circumstances, some very strong colonies refuse to 
swarm more than once; while the repeated "warming of 
weaker ones often ruins both the parent-stock and its 
after-swarms. 
If the bees decide to swarm but once, the first hatched 
queen, being allowed to have her own way, rushes imme¬ 
diately to the cells of her sisters, and stings them to death. 
The other bees probably aid her in this murderous trans¬ 
action ; they certainly tear open the cradles of the slaugh¬ 
tered innocents (PI. XIV., Fig. 47, d), and remove them 
