PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING 21 
cluster very rapidly and are soon quiet. A little later bees will be 
seen flying to and from the cluster which are termed scouts. They 
are out looking for a new home. When a suitable place for a new 
home is reported, usually within a couple of hours, the cluster dis- 
solves and the bees ,flying high, move very rapidly in the direction 
of the hollow tree or other place selected. The bees, having pre- 
viously gorged themselves with honey and soon secreting wax, and, 
clustering in vertical chains forming a net-work, soon have the new 
combs started and the gathering of honey and pollen and the deposi- 
tion of eggs underway. 
If the parent colony is strong enough, a week later, when the 
first young queen comes out, a second swarm may be cast and then 
a third and even a fourth, in some instances. Finally one of the 
young queens takes possession of the colony and the bees destroy 
the other queens by cutting into the tender sides of the cells, drag- 
ging the queen out and throwing her out, dead. A peculiar note is 
sounded by the young queens in a hive when loose and when other 
queens are being held in the cells by the bees, as is sometimes the 
case. This note is called piping, and is indicative of the queen’s 
distress and excitement. She will, from time to time, cling closely 
to the comb and, after issuing her plaintive note, rush about ex- 
citedly. If permitted by the bees, she will get at the cells and des- 
troy the other queens. 
After the queen has mated, the worker bees in their excitement 
will sometimes pitch upon her and form a ball. This is called 
“balling” a queen. The same thing may take place if two or more 
swarms get united, or if strange queens get into a colony. Should 
a colony thus destroy its queen or become queenless in any other 
way, the bees, on being disturbed, will set up a characteristic roar. 
The individual bees will buzz excitedly and then stop for an instant 
and then buzz again. This roaring is almost a positive evidence of 
the colony’s queenless condition. Should the colony not have any 
eggs, or larvae under three days old, a queen cannot be produced by 
them. In the course of time the bees, realizing the hopelessly 
queenless condition, attempt, by feeding up worker bees, to regener- 
ate the colony. These workers are termed laying workers and al- 
though their ovaries become filled with eggs, they are never capa- 
ble of being fertilized, and so can produce nothing but drones of an 
inferior grade, as they are reared in worker cells. The food given 
