NATURAL SWARMING. 103 



the piping continues, a second swarm may be expected ; 

 and if a second swarm issues, and the piping continues 

 still, a third swarm may be expected on the day follow- 

 ing. Third and fourth swarms have been known to come 

 off on the same day. It does not answer for qxieens to 

 pipe three days before third and fourth swarms; the 

 time for their impregnation has arrived, and they cannot 

 wait with safety. In north-west Aberdeenshire a bee- 

 keeper got four swarms from one hive in 1874. The 

 first swarm rose in weight to 124 lb., the second to 75 lb., 

 the third to 45 lb., the fourth to 36 lb., the mother hive 

 to 93 lb.— altogether, to 373 lb. 



The year 1874 was a good one for honey in the north 

 of Scotland. In ordinary years it is not profitable to 

 take third swarms. In very favourable seasons they 

 may fill their hives, and weigh 40 or 50 lb. each. ' Two 

 swarms are sufficient to take from one hive in ordinary 

 seasons. 



It is often not desirable to take second swarms from late 

 swarmers. But if they come when we do not want them, 

 what is to be done t Hive them, and let them remain for 

 a few hours in their hives, and then throw them back on 

 the flight-boards of the hives that cast them off. In nine- 

 teen cases out of twenty they do not issue a second time. 

 But is it not wise to kill the queens of second swarms 

 before returning them ? We never do it when uniting 

 swarms at the swarming season. We have known one 

 instance only in which the conflict of two queens ended 

 in the death of both. The bees generally interfere to pre- 

 vent a conflict between two queens thus brought together. 

 In such cases one of the queens may be often found in the 

 centre of a cluster of bees termed "a regicidal knot." In 

 such a knot the queen comes to grief. 



If the piping be heard after the second swarm has been 

 returned to the old hive, it wiU probably issue again, and 



