This may be put down as a rule, that all after swarms _must_ be out by the eighteenth day from the first. I never found an exception, unless the following may be considered so: When a swarm left the middle of May, and another the first of July, seven weeks after, but two cases of this kind have come up, and these I consider rather in the light of first swarms, as they leave under the same circumstances, leaving the combs in the old stock filled with brood, queen-cells finished, &c. A stock may cast swarms in June, and a buckwheat swarm in August, on the same principle.
WHEN IT IS USELESS TO EXPECT MORE SWARMS.
Therefore, bee-keepers having but few stocks, will find it unnecessary to watch their bees when the last of the first swarms came out sixteen or eighteen days before. Much trouble may be thus saved by understanding this matter. During my early days in beekeeping, I wished for the greatest possible increase of stocks. I had some that had cast the first swarm, and soon after clustered out again. I vainly watched them for weeks and months, expecting another swarm. But had I understood the _modus operandi_, as the reader may now understand it, I should have been through with all my anxiety, as well as watching, in a fortnight. As it was, it lasted two months. I found no one to give me any light on this subject, or even tell me when the swarming season was over, and I came very near watching all summer!
When the bees, queens, or all together, decide that no more swarms are to issue, the plurality of queens is destroyed, and but one is left. It is probable that the oldest and strongest queen dispatches the others, generally while in the cells.
I once had some artificial queens reared, as an experiment, from common eggs, on the top of a hive, in a small glass box, where there was room for but one comb, which allowed me to see all particulars.
After the first queen was matured, and had left her cell, I caught her within six hours, taking advantage of her younger sisters, which were yet sealed up, and of course could offer no resistance. She first made an opening that would allow her to reach the abdomen of her competitor (probably this is the most vulnerable). As soon as this was sufficiently large to admit her body, she thrust it in, inflicting the fatal sting. This was then left for another, that soon shared the same fate. If quick and spiteful movements are any indications of hatred, it was manifested here very plainly. The bees enlarged the orifice and dragged out the now dead queens.