SWARMING. 
227 
TIME BETWEEN SECOND AND THIRD ISSUES. 
Piping for third swarms (when they issue) may 
usually be heard the evening after the second has 
left, though one day commonly intervenes betw.een 
their issues. 
Here my experience is at variance with many 
writers, who give several days between the second 
and third. I do not recollect an instance of more than 
three days between, but many in less, several the 
next, and one the same day of the second ! I had 
an instance of a swarm losing its queen (the old one) 
on its first sally, and returned to wait for the young 
ones ; when they were ready, an uncommon number 
of bees were present ; three swarms issued in three 
days ! On the fourth, another came out and returned ; 
the fifth day it left; making four regular swarms in 
five days. On the eighth, the fifth swarm left ! Al- 
though I never had five swarms from a stock before, 
yet I expected this, from the fact of hearing the piping 
on the next evening after the fourth one had left. 
The piping had continued in this hive from the eve- 
ning previous to the first swarm till the last one had 
left. 
NOT ALWAYS TO BE DEPENDED UPON. 
One stock in fifteen may commence piping, yet 
send out no swarm. The bees will change their 
minds about coming out, and kill their queens, or 
allow the eldest one of them to destroy the others, or 
some other way, as they do not always swarm in such 
circumstances. But when the piping continues over 
