NATURAL SWAEMING. 141 



If the piping continues, a swarm may bo expected; 

 and if a second swarm issues, and the piping continues 

 still, a third swarm may be expected on the day following. 

 A third and a fourth swarm have been known to come off 

 on the same day. It does not answer for queens to pipe 

 three days before third and fourth swarms ; the time for 

 their impregnation has arrived, and they cannot wait with 

 safety. When third swarms come, they are close on the 

 heels of second ones. 



Is it profitable to take third swarms '! Xot often. In 

 very favourable seasons they may fiU their hives, and 

 weigh 40 lb. or 50 lb. each; but in ordinary seasons two 

 swarms are sufficient to take from one hive. 



It is often desirable not to take second swarms from 

 late swarmers. But if they come when we do not want 

 them, what is to be done 1 Hive them, and let them 

 remain for a few hours in their hives, and then throw 

 them on the flight-boards of the 'hives that sent them off. 

 In nineteen cases out of twenty they do not issue a second 

 time. But is it not wise to kill the queens of the swarms 

 before returning them ? It may be, but we never do it, 

 when uniting swarms at the swarming season. We have 

 known one instance only in which the conflict of two 

 queens ended in the death of both. The bees often, no 

 doubt, interfere to prevent a conflict between two queens 

 thus brought together. Queens may often be found in the 

 centre of small hard clusters of bees, which some apiarians 

 term " regicidal knots ; " but it is a question whether these 

 knots are meant to destroy or protect the lives of the 

 queens. 



If the piping be heard after the swarm has been re- 

 turned to the old hive, it will probably issue again, and 

 should again be thrown back ; but this, as we have said, 

 seldom happens ; for after the second swarm has departed. 



