64 BEE-FARMING. 



Although there may be much uncertainty about the 

 particular day when a swarm will venture forth, there can 

 be none as to the part of the day when it issues. It is true 

 we have had swarms from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but we never 

 Jcnew a first swarm later than 12 a.m. The first swarm 

 is led by the old reigning queen, and she has got too old a 

 head on her shoulders either to emigrate when rain is fall- 

 ing, or in the after part of the day, when she may have 

 jut little time to select a favourable spot for her future 

 home — i.e. if the place which may have been selected by 

 the scouts is unsuitable. She also takes good care to choose 

 a fine and warm morning. So far as the second swarm is 

 concerned, we may judge almost to a day when a swarm 

 will leave by the peculiar piping of her majesty. 



The first is only rightly named " swarm," the second 

 is called a "cast," and the third is often nicknamed a 

 "colt," whilst a fourth, by way of distinction from the 

 third, is called a " filly." A sv/arm from a swarm is justly 

 named a " maiden swarm." 



In many villages it is customary when swarming takes 

 place to make a horrid noise with tin cans, kettles, or ring- 

 ing with a key on a frying-pan. Sometimes this is carried 

 to great lengths. It is not unusual to observe some half- 

 dozen females, busy as possible, trying which can make the 

 greatest noise. It is, however, scarcely needful to say that 

 this is really unnecessary. If anything will bewilder the 

 queen, who, to a certain extent, guides the swarm to the 

 selected bough, it must be this intolerable uproar. We 

 have for several years noted many apiarian customs with 

 extreme care and jealousy in this matter. We have ob- 

 served that the queen is not, in nineteen instances out of 

 each twenty, lost, when the tanging is discarded ; but in 

 numerous cases of ringing we have known the swarm to 

 return to the hive, showing us that the queen was either 



