PRACTICAL, BEEKEEPING 21 



cluster very rapidly and are soon quiet. A little later bees will be 

 seen flying to and from the cluster which are termed scouts. They 

 are out looking for a new home. When a suitable place for a new 

 home is reported, usually within a couple of hours, the cluster dis- 

 solves and the bees ,flying high, move very rapidly in the direction 

 of the hollow tree or other place selected. The tees, having pre- 

 viously gorged themselves with honey and soon secreting wax, and, 

 clustering in vertical chains forming a net-work, soon have ihe new 

 combs started and the gathering of honey and pollen and the deposi- 

 tion of eggs underway. 



If the parent colony is strong enough, a week later, when the 

 first young queen comes out, a second swarm may be cast and them 

 a third and even a fourth, in some instances. Finally one of th 

 young queens takes possession of the colony and the bees destroy 

 the other queens by cutting into the tender sides of the cells, drag- 

 ging the queen out and throwing her out, dead. A peculiar note is 

 sounded by the young queens in a hive when loose and when other 

 queens are being held in the cells by the bees, as is sometimes the 

 case. This note is called piping, and is indicative of the queen's 

 distress and excitement. She will, from time to time, cling closely 

 to the comb and, after issuing her plaintive note, rush about ex- 

 citedly. If permitted by the bees, she will get at the cells and des- 

 troy the other queens. 



After the queen has mated, the worker bees in their excitement 

 will sometimes pitch upon her and form a ball. This is called 

 "balling" a queen. The same thing may take place if two or more 

 swarms get united, or if strange queens get into a colony. Should 

 a colony thus destroy its queen or become queenless in any other 

 way, the bees, on being disturbed, will set up a characteristic roar. 

 The individual bees will buzz excitedly and then stop for an instant 

 and then buzz again. This roaring is almost a positive evidence of 

 the colony's queenless condition. Should the colony not have any 

 e ggs, or larvae under three days old, a queen cannot be produced by 

 them. In the course of time the bees, realizing the hopelessly 

 queenless condition, attempt, by feeding up worker bees, to regener- 

 ate the colony. These workers are termed laying workers and al- 

 though their ovaries become filled with eggs, they are never capa- 

 ble of being fertilized, and so can produce nothing but drones of an 

 inferior grade, as they are reared in worker cells. The food given 



