JUNCTION OF SWARMS. 197 



amongst them, and the bees will then soon return to the 

 parent hive. The most prudent method to be adopted in this 

 case is to examine the parent hive, and as at the swarming 

 season there are in general a number of queens in a hive, 

 to obtain possession of one of them, and unite her to the 

 swarm. They will receive her with every demonstration of 

 joy, which will be perceptible by the motion of their wings, 

 occasioning a loud humming noise. 



It sometimes happens that a swarm divides itself into 

 several clusters, which is a certain sign that there are several 

 queens, each cluster perhaps having one. It is recommended 

 by some apiarians to leave them in this state, as the 

 lesser cluster will attach itself to the larger, and the queens, 

 finding themselves forsaken, will also join the general group ; 

 this, however, at the best is a bad practice, independently of 

 its being a useless waste of time. The bees in forming a 

 spontaneous junction evidently point out the method which 

 ought to be adopted, and therefore the clusters ought to be 

 united with all possible despatch, and every means should 

 be employed to take captive the superfluous queens, and, on 

 finding that the bees agree after their junction, to destroy 

 the queens without any further ceremony. Lombard and 

 Ducouedic recommend that it should be left to the judgment 

 of the bees to kill whatever queens they please, as they are 

 supposed to be the best judges in matters of that kind : we 

 dissent however from their recommendation, on the ground, 

 that no harmony nor concert of action can exist amongst the 

 community, whilst there is a superfluity of queens amongst 

 them ; that they will be apt to separate, and be led away by 

 the respective queens, and thus prove a dead loss to the 

 proprietor. 



It frequently happens in an extensive apiary that swarms 

 from different hives will form a junction, in spite of every 

 endeavour to prevent it, and it is doubtless this circumstance, 

 which has given rise to the account of those enormous 



