22 AN EASY METHOD 



that the queen has disposed of all her competitors, and that 

 there will be no further swarming that season. The first queen 

 is usually heard the eighth day after the first swarming. 



We know of no rule by which the exact day of their first 

 swarming can be known with certainty. The apiarian will 

 estimate near the time by the number of bees in and about 

 the hive, as it will become very much crowded. 



The day of second swarming, and all after that during the 

 same season, may be most certainly predicted, as follows ; 

 Listen near the entrance of the hive in the evening. If a 

 swarm is coming forth the next day, or in a short time, the 

 queen will be heard piping an alarm at short intervals. The 

 same alarm may be heard until swarming takes place, or one 

 queen is destroyed by the other. The observer will gene- 

 rally hear two queens at a time in the same hive, before the 

 swarm comes out, the one much louder than the other. The 

 one making the least noise is yet in her cell, and in her 

 minority. As queens frequently hatch within a few hours of 

 each other, several of them may escape from their cells, in 

 the short space of one night : then the observer will hear 

 niore than two queens, all differing in their tones, sounding 

 on their respective pitches. The sound emitted by the 

 queens is peculiar, differing materially from that of any 

 other bee. It consists of a number of monotonous notes in 

 rapid succession, similar to those emitted by the mud-wasp 

 ■when working her mortar, and joining it to her cells, to raise 

 mud-wasps. If, after all, the weather is unfavorable to their 

 swarming several days while in this peculiar stage, they will 

 not be likely to swarm again the same season, because the 

 queens, in their conflicts with each other, soon decide the 

 business for the whole season. We have seen but one vari- 

 ation : one year no piping of the queens was heard, yet the 

 second and third swarming was abundant. 



