SWARMING AND HIVINa. 157 



happens in the agilation of swarming, that several of the 

 young queens emerge from their cells at the same time, and 

 accompany the colony : when this is -the case, the bees often 

 alight in two or more separate clusters. Young queens 

 not having their ovaries burdened with eggs, are much more 

 quick on the wing, than old ones, and fly frequently much 

 farther from the parent stock, before they alight ; though 

 I never knew a second swarm to depart to the woods with- 

 out clustering at all. After the departure of a second 

 swarm, the oldest of the remaining queens leaves her cell ; 

 and if another swarm is to be sent forth, piping will still be 

 heard, and so before ihe issue of each swarm after the first. 

 I once had five stocks issue from one swarm, and they all 

 came out in about two weeks. In warm latitudes more than 

 twice this number of swarms have been known to issue 

 in one season from a single stock. The third swarm com- 

 monly makes its appearance on the second or third day after 

 the second swarm, and the others, at intervals of about a day. 

 After-swarms, or casts, (these names are. given to all 

 swarms after the first,) reduce very seriously the strength of 

 the parent stock ; for after the departure of the old queen, no 

 more eggs are deposited in the cells, until all swarming is 

 over. It is a very wise arrangement that the second swarm 

 does not ordinarily issue until all the eggs left by the first 

 queen are hatched, and the young fed and sealed over, so 

 as to require no further care. The departure of the second 

 swarm earlier than this, would leave too few laborers to 

 attend to the wants of the young bees. As it is, if the 

 weather after swarming, suddenly becomes chilly, and the 

 hives are thin and admit too much air, the bees are too 

 much reduced in numbers, to maintain the heat requisite for 

 the proper development of the brood, and numbers are de- 

 stroyed. 



14 



