156 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



will respond, in a somewhat hoarser key, just as chicken- 

 eocks, by crowing, bid defiance to each other. These- 

 sounds are entirely unlike the usual steady hum of the bees, 

 and when heard, are the almost infallible indications that a 

 second swarm 'will soon issue. They are occasionally so 

 loud that they may be heard at some distance from the hive. 

 About a week after first swarming, the Apiarian should, 

 early in the morning or at evening, when the bees are still, 

 place his ear against the hive, and he will, if the queens 

 are piping, readily recognize their peculiar sounds. If iheir 

 notes are not heard, at the very latest, sixteen days after the 

 departure of the first swarm, by which . time the young 

 queens are mature, even if the first colony left as soon as 

 the eggs were deposited in the royal cells, it is an infallible 

 indication that the first hatched queen is without rivals in 

 the hive, and that swarming is over, in that stock, for the 

 season. 

 • The second swarm usually issues on the second or third 

 day after this sound is heard : although I have known them 

 to delay coming out, until the fifth day, in consequence of a 

 very unfavorable state of the weather. Occasionally, the 

 weather is so unfavorable, that the bees permit the oldest 

 queen to kill the others, and refuse to swarm again. This 

 is a rare occurrence, as the young queens, unlike the old 

 ones, do not appear to be very particular about the weather, 

 and sometimes venture out, not merely when it is cloudy, 

 but even when rain is falling. On this account, if a very 

 close watch is not kept, they are often lost. As piping 

 ordinarily commences about eight or nine days after first 

 swarming, the second swarm generally issues ten or twelve 

 days after the first. It has been known to issue as early as 

 the third day after the fii'st, and as late as the seventeenth. 

 Such cases, however, are of rare occurrence. It frequently 



