202 AUSTRALASIAN e 
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—hbe 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 
