On 4 Jan 00, at 18:07, Rex Boys wrote:

> Queen piping is the sound made when one queen detects the proximity of =
> another.  Hence it only occurs around swarming time; for a given colony, =
> this might be a few days every 2 years which is why you are lucky to =
> catch it.

I have been fortunate to hear this quite frequently. We keep our
queen cages in very close proximity just before shipping and we hear
them piping almost every time we harvest queens.
        You're right, close proximity seems to be the trigger, when we
seperate them by about 5-6 feet it stops. We have tried isolating the
'piper' but it is impossible, as you get close and disturb them the
piping stops.



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