172 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



SO the young queen oould go out on her wedding-trip. The 

 tiling was so certain to work that I spent $37.50 for queen- 

 excluders to put the plan in practice. 



SWARMING GALORE. 



In due time when queen-cells were sealed the swarms began 

 to issue. Then they returned. Then they came out next day. 

 Then they returned again. After doing more or less of this, the 

 time came when the young queens began to emerge. Business 

 became lively. Swarming once a day did not always satisfy 

 them. The number of issues in a day became such that several 

 swarms would be out at a time, and they were not at all partic- 

 ular to keep separate. Neither vvere they as methodical as 

 prime swarms about returning to their own hives. Almost anj' 

 hive seemed to suit them providing there was a good deal of 

 noise at the entrance, and when swarming got well under way 

 for the day there were plenty of hives with noise at the en- 

 trance. Whether the excluders leaked queens, or whatever may 

 have been the reason, there were some cases of young queens 

 being out, and when there was a young queen in a swarm there 

 was no telling how many swarms would unite with it. 



ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR. 



After a swarm had been balked in its efforts a number of 

 times there seemed to be a reckless disregard in a good many 

 eases as to the propriety of returning when they had had plenty 

 of time to discover that no young queen had come out with 

 them, and sometimes they would settle and remain clustered for 

 half a day, perhaps several swarms in the cluster. Nothing so 

 very bad about that, if I had only been entirely sure that some 

 time they would return; but when I stood gazing on a bunch of 

 bees as big as my body when I'm in best condition, and medi- 

 tated upon the chance of there being a young queen in the 

 bunch to incite them to sail off into the ethereal blue — well, it 

 was not the sort of meditation most conducive to composure of 

 mind. 



Inside of the hive the program as laid down was pretty 

 generally carried out ; at the proper time the excluder was 



