28 
NATURAL SWARMING. 
appears from this that the immediate cause of after-swarming 
springs from a desire to avoid a quarrel among the “ women 
folks.” The piping cannot he mistaken for any other sound 
given by the bees, and may always be heard the morning or 
evening preceding the issue of any swarm after the first. If 
a second swarm is to issue, piping will usually be heard, by hold 
ing the ear close to the hive, on the morning or evening of the 
eighth or ninth day from the departure of the first swarm; and, 
for third swarms, on the next evening or morning after the issue 
of the second. If it is not heard by the fourteenth day, from 
the time the first swarm left, no after-swarm need be expected. 
In good seasons or in favored localities, second swarms, if early, 
will generally lay up sufficient stores for winter, and are valua- 
ble on account of having vigorous young queens. But, in this 
latitude, if after-swarms are cast the old stock is often greatly 
weakened, and consequently more exposed to the inroads of the 
moth, besides seldom storing surplus honey after swarming. The 
swarms also often fail to secure stores for winter, and have to be 
broken up in the fall. A safer and more profitable course is to 
allow but one swarm to issue from a stock the same season. 
With movable-comb hives, the issue of after-swarms is easily and 
surely prevented, by opening the hive in five or six days after 
the first swarm leaves and taking away all the queen cells but 
one. By this course, we may keep all our stocks, both old and 
new, strong and prosperous. But with the common hive, pro- 
bably the best that can be done is to join two or more second 
swarms together, (see “ Uniting Bees,”) as they are usually but 
half the size of first swarms. All swarms after the second should, 
