336 THE INSECT WORLD. 



remarked that, in a swarm which had started, if the queen, who 

 directed the flight, were seized and killed, immediately all the bees 

 would return to the hive. It would seem that, having lost their chief^ 

 they acknowledged themselves incapable of forming a colony. 



A swarm never comes out except on a fine day, or, to speak more. 

 accurately, at an hour of the day when the sun is shining, when thei 

 air is calm, and the sky clear. It is generally between ten o'clock in 

 the morning and three o'clock in the afternoon. " We observed,"' 

 says Francis Huber, "in a hive all the signs which are the fore- 

 runners of a cast for a swarm — disorder and agitation — but a cloud 

 passed before the sun, and quiet was restored to the hive; the bees: 

 thought no more of swarming. An hour after, the sun having shown 

 itself again, the tumult recommenced, increased very rapidly, and 

 the swarm set out on its journey."''' 



At the moment which precedes their exit, the buzzing increases 

 in the hive. Some of the workers go out first, as if to ascertain the 

 state of the atmosphere. The moment the queen has passed the 

 threshold, the emigrants follow in a cloud behind her ; in an instant 

 the air is darkened with bees, which crowd together and form a thiclsl 

 cloud. The swarm rises, whirling round about in the air ; it poised 

 itself for a few minutes over the hive, to allow time to reconnoitre^ 

 and for the laggards to join, and then goes off at full speed. ! 



The queen does not make choice of the place where the company 

 shall find shelter. When a branch of a tree has been selected by a 

 certain number, they fix themselves on it. Many others follow them. 

 When a great many have collected, the queen joins the throng, and 

 brings in her train the rest of the troop. The group already formed 

 becomes larger and larger every instant. Those which are stil 

 scattered about in the air hasten to join the majority, and ver} 

 soon all together compose one solid mass or clump of bees cling 

 ing to each other by their legs. This cluster (Fig. 322) is some 

 times spherical, sometimes pyramidal, and occasionally attains i 

 weight of nine pounds, and may contain as many as 40,000 bees 

 From this moment, although they are uncovered, they remaii 

 still. In a quarter of an hour everything becomes quiet, and th( 

 bees cease to hover about the cluster more than round an ordinar 



^ In general, bees very much dislike bad weather ; when they are foraging in th 

 country, the appearance of a single cloud before the sun causes them to retur: 

 home precipitately. However, if the sky is uniformly dark and cloudy, and i 

 there are not any sudden alternations of darkness and light, they are not easil 

 alarmed, and the first drops of a gentle rain hardly drive them away from thei 

 hunting-ground. 



