MANAGING BEES. 21 



ll'tlic weather becomes unfavorable to swarm- 

 ing, the next day after the alarm of the Queen 

 is heard, and continues so for several days, the 

 oldest Queen may come in contact with the 

 others, or gain access to their cells ; in either 

 case the life of one of them is destroyed by the 

 other, and the colony will not be likely to send 

 forth another swarm the same season. If the 

 old Queen succeeds in taking the life of the 

 younger, or vice vcr^, the remaining nymphs 

 will be likely to share the same fate of their 

 martyred sisters, by the hand of the reigning 

 Queen, who considers all others in the same 

 hive as her competitors. 



Second swarms would be as large ancrtlu- 

 merous as any others, if it was not the fact that 

 they come forth to avoid the battle of the 

 Queens. Bees are very tenacious to preserve 

 the lives of their sovereigns, particularly those 

 of their own raising ; and when they find they 

 have more than one in the hive, they will 

 guard each so strong as to prevent, if possibh^, 

 their coming within reach of each other. 'They 

 bein'T thus strongly guarded to prevent the 



