150 SWAKMING AND HIVING. 



loud that they may be heard at some distance from the hive. 

 About a week after first swarming, the Apiarian should, 

 early in the morning or at evening, when the bees are still, 

 place his ear against the hive, and he will, if the Queens are 

 piping, readily recognize their peculiar sounds. If their 

 notes are not heard, at the very latest, sixteen days after the 

 departure of the first swarm, by which time the young 

 Queens are mature, even if the first colony left as soon as 

 the construction of royal cells was commenced, it is an infal- 

 lible indication that the first hatched Queen is without rivals 

 in the hive, and that swarming, in that stock, is over for the 

 season. 



The second swarm usually issues on the second or third 

 day after this sound is heard : although I have known them 

 to delay coming oul, until the fifth day, in consequence of a 

 very unfavorable state of the weather. Occasionally, the 

 weather is so unfavorable, that the bees permit the oldest 

 Queen to kill the others, and refuse to swarm again. This 

 is a rare occurrence, as the young Queens, unlike the old 

 ones, do not appear to be very particular about the weather, 

 and sometimes venture out, not merely when it is cloudy^ 

 but even when rain is falling. On this account, if a very 

 close watch is not kept, they are often lost. As piping ordi- 

 narily commences about a week after first swarming, the 

 second swarm generally issues nine days after the first. It 

 has been known to issue as early as the third day after the 

 first, and as late as the seventeenth. Such cases, however 

 are of rare occurrence. 



It frequently happens in the agitation of swarming, that 

 several of the young Queens emerge from their cells at the 

 same time, and accompany the colony : when this is the 

 case, the bees often alight in two or more separate clus- 

 ters. 



