SECONDARY SWAKMS. 227 



nymphs. In about a week, one of them hatches ; and the 

 question must be decided whether or not, any more colo- 

 nies shall be formed that season. If the hive is well filled 

 with bees, and the season is in all respects promising, it is 

 generally decided in the affirmative ; although, under such 

 circumstances, some very strong colonies refuse to swarm 

 more than once. 



If the bees of the parent-colony decide to prevent the first 

 hatched queen from killing the others, a strong guard is 

 kept over their cells, and as often as she approaches them 

 with murderous intent, she is bitten, or given to understand 

 bj' other most uncourtier-like demonstrations, that even a 

 queen cannot, in all things, do just as she pleases. 



446. About a week after first swarming, should the 

 Apiarist place his ear against the hive, in the morning or 

 evening, when the bees are still, if the queens are "pipfng," 

 he will readily recognize their peculiar sounds (116). The 

 young queens are all mature, at the latest, in sixteen days 

 from the departure of the first swarm, even if it left as 

 soon as the roj'al cells were begun. 



The second swarm usually issues on the first or second 

 day after piping is heard ; though the bees sometimes delay 

 coming out until the fifth day, in consequence of an unfa- 

 vorable state of the weather. Occasionally, the weather is 

 so very unfavorable, that they permit the oldest queen 

 to kill the others, and refuse to swarm again. This is a 

 rare occurrence, as young queens are not so particular 

 about the weather as old ones, and sometimes venture out, 

 not merely when it is cloudy, but when rain is falling. On 

 this account, if a very close watch is not kept, they are 

 often lost. As piping ordinarily commences about a week 

 after first-swarming, tlie second swarm usually issues eight 

 or nine days after the first ; although it has been known to 

 issue as early as the third, and as late as the seventeenth ; 

 but such cases are very rare. 



