SPRING MANAGEMENT. 295 
together with one queen. This is often the best 
time for making a reunion of after-swarms; for I 
have usually found that all the queens except one 
are ejected on the same day: that one, being 
stronger than those still in the parent hive, is able 
to destroy them on her return to it. If a cloth is 
spread on a table, placed in front of the old hive 
at dusk, the bees of the swarm can be jerked out 
upon it, and guided to its mouth. In two hours 
after the reunion just mentioned, piping from a 
queen at liberty was heard. The next day two 
young queens were ejected—one of them torn from 
its cell, not having attained its full growth; while 
from the other the sting was protruding, evidently the 
result of a recent combat. Piping was again heard 
on the following morning; and soon after, another 
princess, doubtless the last, was cast out of the 
hive, and this I took away still alive—making five 
in all since the issue of the first swarm. We may 
observe that when swarming has taken place as 
often as the colony intend, the original utilitarian 
principle no longer impels the bees to guard the 
royal cells; the reigning princess being then per- 
mitted to tear them open and destroy any pro- 
spective rival. Exceptional cases, however, occur, 
and not altogether rarely, in which two or even 
more queens will settle down to reign in the same 
hive. 
It is not clear by what instinct bees are euided 
as respects after-swarms, or rather as to the 
construction of royal cells; for, as has been shown, 
these abound much more in some hives than in 
