184 



SWAEMING. 



OSB QUEEN DESTROYS OTHERS. 



When it is decided in family council, that no more 

 swarms are to issue, all but one of the queens are destroy- 

 ed. It is probable that the oldest and strongest dispatches 

 the others, while in the cells, or allows them to issue, and 

 take a fair fight. 



When rearing Italian queens in the small boxes, it is usu- 

 al to have half a dozen queen-cells on a very small piece 

 of comb. To save these from destruction, all but one must 

 be cut out before any hatch. If the brood given them is 

 just the right age — about four days old — a queen will 

 hatch in ten days, and if the others are not removed, the 

 first one that hatches, makes it her business to destroy the 

 rest. I have often caught them when just out of their own 

 cell, at work at the others. The younger sisters in help- 

 less confinement are slaughtered without mercy. An 

 opening is bitten into the royal cell, and the fatal sting in- 

 flicted in the abdomen of the defenceless queen. 



If quick and spiteful movements are any indication of 

 hatred, it is here very plainly manifested. The bees en- 

 large the opening and drag out the dead queens. 



It is probable that all swarming hives manage in this 

 way when it is decided to send out no more swarms, as we 

 find numbers of dead queens about the entrance just at 

 this time; and this may generally be taken as evidence 

 that swarming is over in such hive for the season. Should 

 the stock send out but one swarm, the dead queens may 

 be found about the time, or a little before, you would 

 listen for the piping. 



Whenever hives containing swarms are full, or nearly so, 

 boxes should be put on without delay, unless the honey 

 season is so nearly over that it is imnecessary. 



