SWARMING. 45 



fortnight are enough to send off; and sometimes they 

 can't aiford to do that. And to prevent second swarms 

 leaving, the bees adopt signal measures. As soon as the 

 first princess is horn, and commences to call or "pipe," 

 they hush her into silence at once. Before she gets the 

 one " pa-ay " haK uttered, the bees prevent her from going 

 on with it. In stopping her, they make a sound like the 

 word "hush" spoken by the human voice. The super- 

 numerary princesses are lulled and cast out of the hive. 



It has been said that the usual time of piping for second 

 swarms is three days and nights; but it ought to be 

 stated that when the weather prevents swarming, and the 

 bees are bent on swarming, the piping wiU be continued 

 for some days longer. I have known it continued for 

 seven days; and during those seven days, not one of 

 the princesses ever closed an eye in sleep. The piping 

 of queens, and their deadly and undying hatred of one 

 another, are extraordinary things in the history of bees. 

 Two old queens, or two young ones, it matters not whether 

 they be mother and offspring, or sisters of the blood, or 

 strangers every way, will, on meeting, rush savagely at 

 each other, and fight with greater fury than bull-dogs. 



In every contest between two queens it is death or 

 victory. In some such contests both die. I have known 

 two engaged in this deadly and violent struggle roll out 

 at the door of the hive, over the flight-board, and fight it 

 out on the ground. In this battle the one was killed and 

 the other wounded. Once we saw two young queens 

 meet on the flight-board of a hive while a second swarm 

 was issuing from it. They ran and embraced each other 

 in furious combat ; but, as we wished to obtain the second 

 swarm, we tore the combatants asunder, and threw them 

 up in the air. Both went with the swarm. Next morn- 

 ing one was found dead in front of the hive into which 

 the swarm was put. 



