48 HIVING SWARMS. 
weather is favorable, a swarm may be expected on the tenth or eleventh 
day. It is but very seldom that a swarm does not issue on the third 
day after the piping commences, and in such cases a swarm may be 
expected, though the weather should not be very favorable. Unless 
this voice can be heard about the period before stated, no after-swarms 
will issue. : 
The rationale of this theory lies simply here: The first swarm gen- 
erally issues about the time the queen cells are sealed over, which 
usually occurs on the eighth day after the eggs are deposited in it; in 
about eight days more the queen is matured, at which time piping 
generally commences, if a second swarm is to issue, and within three 
days from that time a second swarm may be expected, and occasion- 
ally when a plurality of queens mature at, or about the same time, a 
third swarm will issue in the course of three days from the second. I 
find it best to return third swarms to the parent hive; or, in case they 
have occupied it for three or four years, I hive the new swarm in a 
suitable hive, and about sunset of the same day, I unite the old stock 
with the swarm. See chapter on Reunion of Swarms. 
CHAPTER XII. 
HIVING SWARMS. 
Tuts branch of bee culture is generally better understood than 
many other things connected with bee-keeping. Yet, in hiving 
swarms, hardly two persons can be found that operate exactly alike 
in all respects. While some adhere to the ancient custom of ringing 
bells and drumming on pans and kettles, at the time of swarming, to 
induce the bees to settle, others resort to no such means, an@ consider 
it entirely useless: and I am of opinion that it does no goodat all. In 
case a swarm seem determined to go off, throwing water, or dirt, and 
gravel among them, frequently has a more favorable effect, to induce 
them to settle, than anything else. I have known of many a swarm 
