Afterward Sandy explained how bees swarm. A colony of bees will
permit but one queen in a hive. Sometimes, when a new one is hatched,
the swarm divides, part of the bees going off with the new, or
sometimes the old queen, to form a new colony.
This is called "swarming," and the idea is to capture the new swarm,
and so increase your number of colonies. Sometimes the bees will go
off to the woods, and make a home for themselves in a hollow tree,
being thus lost to the keeper. A swarm of bees will make in a season
many pounds of honey more than they need to feed themselves during
the winter.
Sandy explained how faithful and devoted a colony of bees is to
their queen, which is the bee that lays eggs out of which are hatched
drones, or male bees, and the workers. There is a peculiar kind of
honey called "queen bread," and sometimes, it is said by some, when a
queen bee dies, the workers will select a "cell" containing an egg
that will eventually hatch, and surround this egg with queen bread so
that when the insect develops enough, it can feed on that instead of
on ordinary honey.
This is said to change the character of the insect and make a queen
of it to replace the one that has died. Or, if this is not done the
queenless colony may merge with another that has a queen.
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