and the bees returned to the parent stock, so as to keep the old hive well
replenished with bees during the moth season; likewise to avoid the loss
of the old stock by freezing in the winter. Too much swarming frequently
occasions the loss of the old stock the winter following, because their
numbers are so reduced that the necessary animal heat cannot be kept up to
prevent them from perishing by cold. There may be more than one queen in
all swarms after the first[1], as in all cases when bees make one queen
they make a plurality of them, and if more than one is hatched at the time
of swarming, in the confusion which takes place in the hive, during
swarming, all the queens which are hatched will sally forth with the
swarm; hence, in taking away queens, the bee master should look for them
until the bees begin to return to the parent stock. Cut off a limb and
shake the bees on a table to find the queens.
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[1] Large colonies sometimes loose their queen and have been
known to make more, in which case, in order to avoid the
conflict of the queens, they have been known to swarm out
several bushels of Bees.