NATURAL SWARMING. 218 



confidently state, therefore, that this sign may be 

 regarded as the invariable precursor of an after-swarm, 

 and that its absence, in any stock from which a swarm 

 has issued, infallibly denotes that its swarming is over 

 for the season. 



" I have said that the period at which piping usu- 

 ally takes place is the ninth day after the departure 

 of a first swarm ; in this there is, however, a degree 

 of uncertainty, depending in some measure upon the 

 state of the weather, and perhaps on other circum- 

 stances. It may take place a few days earlier and 

 several days later than the average time. It has been 

 known to occur within a day or two of the issue of 

 the first swarms, and it is by no means an uncom- 

 mon thing for it to happen as early as the seventh or 

 eighth day after it; piping is also now and then 

 delayed to the fifteenth or sixteenth day; whether 

 late or early, it generally continues the usual time, 

 namely, three or four days, so that when deferred to 

 the latest period I have named, the second swarm will 

 not come forth till the eighteenth or twentieth day 

 after the issue of the first. Both these extremes, 

 however, may be regarded as very rare occurrences. 



' ' In order to understand the rationale of what I have 

 said, it is necessary to advert to the period at which a 

 young queen begins piping, namely, as soon as she 

 arrives at maturity, and to compare this with the 

 average periods of first and second swarming. A 

 first swarm generally issues soon after the cells of 

 the embryo queens have been sealed over, therefore 

 when the latter are about eight days old : in about 



