202 AUSTRALASIAN 



injure or kill the queen, and swarm out with the first young 

 one that emerges ; so that some person should always be at 

 hand during the swarming season. On the other hand, it can 

 be said that where the bees are allowed to swarm at all, some 

 one must be about pretty often, if not all the time, as already 

 noticed in this chapter. The facilities afforded for hiving 

 swarms, and the certainty of not losing any, will no doubt be 

 considered by most bee-keepers sufficient to more than repay 

 for the little extra care required in watching the apiary. 



PROCESS OF CLIPPING. 



Take hold of the queen by the wings with the thumb and 

 forefinger of the left hand — be careful not to hold her by the 

 body — place, her on a board (still keeping the wings between 

 the thumb and finger), so that she can stand upon her feet — 

 this will keep her legs out of the way — now pass the point of 

 a small pair of scissors under one of the front-wings and clip. 



AFTER-SWARMS. 



It has already been explained in another part of this chapter 

 that in the ordinary course of things a second swarm may be 

 expected about eight or nine days after the first, and in some 

 cases a third and even a fourth may issue within a few more 

 days, unless the necessary steps have been taken to prevent it. 

 These are what are termed after-swarms, and are invariably 

 headed by virgin queens which have been reared from one lot 

 of queen cells. After-swarms are much smaller than the first, 

 and unless a large increase is required they should always be 

 suppressed. It often occurs when a number of young queens 

 emerge about the same time that all save one will accompany 

 the last swarm ; hence it is that we often find four or five dead 

 queens about the front of a hive shortly after placing one of 

 these swarms in it. To an experienced bee-keeper it is not 

 difficult to judge correctly, when a swarm is in the air, whether 

 or not it is headed by a virgin queen. An impregnated queen 

 leading off a swarm usually acts in a business-like manner, and 

 quickly makes choice of a place for settling, and as quickly 

 alights; but a virgin queen often leads her bees and their 

 master dancing attendance upon her for a considerable time 

 while she is undecided where to alight, and then probably she 



