ana its Economic Management. 45 
I am well aware that such queens will, if placed together, 
immediately fight until one receives its instantaneous death 
wound ; when several accompany a swarm, or in case two 
or more swarms settle together, each having a fertile 
queen, the bees themselves settle the matter by “ balling” 
those not required. After the hive is so weakened that 
the bees know it is useless to attempt to swarm again, or 
should the weather be unfavorable, the queens still unborn 
are destroyed, as I have reason to believe, by the workers 
tearing open the side of the cells and there stinging their 
helpless victims, or tearing them out piecemeal. 
Young Queens Piping. 
This peculiar sound will always be heard during a day 
or so before the issue of the second swarm. The sound 
appears to be an answering call or challenge from one 
young queen to another, and strange though it may seem, 
if the colony is still populous, several of these young 
queens may be running about the combs at the same 
time without harming each other. But this sound or call 
has a magnetic influence over the workers, who appear 
spell-bound, themselves being held motionless and flattened 
on the combs, in imitation of the queen’s own action and 
attitude, while piping. This I have repeatedly noticed 
while holding the comb in my hand. 
Within seven days after the issue of the first swarm there 
are.no more uncapped larvae, and therefore no more feeding 
required from the nurse bees until the last remaining 
queen is laying, a period of some 20 days, so that if 
excessive swarming is not indulged in, stores continue to 
accumulate while there is a reduced force to gather it. It 
is well that this is so, as the young queen is generally so 
very prolific that unless the workers can get in advance of 
