seconds. There is but one way of preventing second swarms, and that is, by giving them more room, and destroying all the remaining royal cells, as soon as it is ascertained that a young Queen has been hatched, to preside over the community. A first swarm departs only on a fine day, when the sky is clear, and the sun shines; a second, or cast, is not so scrupulous. Should the weather become wet immediately after the emigrants have been housed, they must be fed.
Virgin Swarms.—When the swarming season has been early and favourable, a strong first swarm sends forth sometimes a young colony headed by the old Queen. For the first few days after she had taken possession of her new abode, she has laid the eggs of workers in great numbers. Portions of comb containing large cells are at the same time constructed, in which she lays the eggs of males. The workers are thereby encouraged to build royal cells; and, if the weather be favourable, at the end of a month from the time of her leaving her original abode, the old Queen leads off a new band of emigrants. The product of this swarm, if suffered to exist separately, is called virgin honey. What has been said of the value of second, third, and fourth swarms, is equally applicable to swarms of this description. Unless in very particular circumstances, they are not only not advantageous, but positively injurious to the general prosperity of the apiary, and should therefore be prevented.
A timid and inexperienced cultivator of bees may
