A second swarm generally leaves the hive about nine days after the first, but the time may be exactly ascertained by standing quietly beside the hive after sunset, when the Queen may be distinctly heard "to tun' in hir treble voic',"[9] which is a certain indication that a second swarm will leave the hive. Should two or three Queens be heard one after the other, it will be on the following day, if the weather be not very unfavourable, (for the second and third swarms appear to have less regard as to the weather than the first.) Should the Queens continue to pipe after the departure of the second swarm, a third will certainly follow in a few days, but if one or two Queens be found dead beneath the hive on the next morning, no more swarms can be expected.
[9] Butler's Feminin Monarchi—Edit. 1634.
That the old Queen accompanies the first swarm is established beyond a doubt; that many Queens are bred in a hive, a number sometimes exceeding thirty in one year, is also ascertained; and that the Bees have the power of producing a Queen from an egg deposited in the combs of the working Bees, by treating it in a different manner to those that are to become workers, has also been satisfactorily proved, all that has been said beyond this, regarding their natural history, must, I believe, be considered principally conjecture.
It is, however, says a modern Author, "not the least interesting part of the study of the Bee, that this apparently insignificant insect has hitherto baffled all the research and ingenuity of man to discover the manner of its propagation; analogy presents no guide to the solution of this secret, and the result of every anatomical experiment has tended rather to mystify the subject, than to conduct us to the road to truth," and Purchas, who I have before quoted says, "God humbles us with ignorance in many things, not only divine but natural and in common use, in the nature of Bees how blind are we, notwithstanding all our observations and labour in the production and continuance of the Queen Bee, in the generation of other Bees, and generally in the forms of all things."
CHAPTER VII.
Method of uniting second and third Swarms.
Second and third Swarms, or Casts and Colts, are seldom or ever able to collect a sufficient quantity of honey, to support themselves through the winter, and can only be preserved by much care and expense, and most of them die after all without bringing any profit. It is much better therefore to unite them in the following manner:—when two Casts or Colts come off upon the same day hive them separately and leave them till an hour and half after sunset, then spread a cloth upon the ground, upon which by a smart and sudden movement shake all the Bees out of one of the hives, and immediately take the other and place it gently over the Bees that are heaped together upon the cloth, and they will instantly ascend into it and join those, which, not having been disturbed, are quiet in their new abode; next morning before sunrise remove this newly united hive to the place in which it is to remain; this doubled population will work with double success and in the most perfect harmony, and generally become a strong stock from which much profit may be derived.
Two Casts or weak Swarms may be joined in the same manner, although one of them may have swarmed some days or even weeks later than the other, taking care however not to make the first one enter the second, but the second the first, a third and a fourth parcel of Bees may be joined to them at different times till the stock becomes strong.
It is almost impossible sufficiently to impress upon the mind of every person who keeps Bees the necessity of having his stocks all strong, for weak stocks are very troublesome, very expensive, and seldom, if ever, afford any profit.
Mr. Taylor says, "the stronger the colony at the outset the better the Bees will work, and the more prosperous it will become. I never knew a weak one do well long, and a little extra expense and trouble at first are amply rewarded by succeeding years of prosperity and ultimate profit;" and again, "thus strength in one year begets it in succeeding ones, and this principle ought to be borne in mind by those who imagine that the deficient population of one season will be made up in the next, and that the loss of Bees in the winter is of secondary consequence, forgetting how influential is their warmth to the earlier and increased productive powers of the Queen, and how important it is in the opening spring to be able to spare from the home duties of the hive a number of collectors, to add to the stores, which would otherwise not keep pace with the cravings of the rising generation."