SWARMINQ AND HIVING. 151 



The following remarkable instance came under my obser- 

 vation, in 1854. A second swarm deserted its abode the 

 second day after being hived, and lit upon a tree. Before 

 securing them, I first examined the abandoned hive, and 

 found jive young Queens lying dead on the bottom-board. 

 The bees were then returned to the hive, and the next morn- 

 ing, two more dead Queens were found, making seven in 

 all. As the colony afterwards prospered, eight Queens, at 

 least, must have left the parent slock, in the same season ! 



Young Queens not having their ovaries burdened with 

 eggs, are much more quick on the wing, than old ones, and 

 fly frequently much farther from the parent stock, before 

 they alight ; though I never knew a second swarm to depart 

 to the woods without clustering at all. After the departure 

 of a second swarm, the oldest of the remaining Queens 

 leaves her cell ; and if another swarm is to be sent forth, 

 piping will still be heard, and so before the issue of each 

 swarm after the first. Piping will sometimes be heard for a 

 short time after the issue of the second swarm, even in cases 

 where the bees do not intend to swarm again. I once had five 

 stocks issue from one swarm, and they all came out in about 

 two weeks. In warm latitudes more than twice this number of 

 swarms have been known to issue in one season from a 

 single stock. The third swarm commonly makes its appear- 

 ance on the second or third day after the second swarm, and 

 the others, at intervals of about a day. 



In after swarming it sometimes occurs that the Queen, 

 after having appeared on the alighting-board, re-enters the 

 hive, either from alarm or some other cause. If she does 

 so once, she will be apt to repeat it again and again, and 

 the swarm in each instance, will return to the mother hive, 

 greatly to the annoyance of the Apiarian. 



After-swarras, or casts, (these names are given to all 



