PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 167 



four hours after swarming, or at the latest two or three 

 days. 



You may think, perhaps, that the bees which emi- 

 grate from the parent hive are the youth of the colony ; 

 but this is not the case, for bees of all ages unite to 

 form the swarms. The numbers of which they consist 

 vary much. Reaumur calls 12,000 a moderate swarm ; 

 and he mentions one which amounted to more than 

 three times that number (40,000). A swarm seldom 

 or never takes place except when the sun shines and 

 the air is calm. Sometimes, when every thing seems 

 to prognosticate swarming, a cloud passing over the 

 sun calms the agitation ; and afterwards, upon his 

 shining forth again, the tumult is renewed, keeps aug- 

 menting, and the swarm departs''. On this account the 

 confinement of the queens, before related, is observed 

 to be more protracted in bad weather. 



The longest interval between the swarms is from 

 seven to nine days, which usually is the space that in- 

 tervenes between the first and the second. The next 

 flies sooner, and the last sometimes departs the day after 

 that which preceded it. Fifteen or eighteen days, in 

 favourable weather, are usually sufficient for throwing 

 the four swarms. The old queen, when she takes flight 

 with the first swarm, leaves plenty of brood in the cells, 

 which soon renew the population''. 



It is not without example, though it rarely happens, 

 that a swarm conducted by the old queen increases so 



* Bees are generally thought to foresee the state of the weather: but 

 they are not always right in their prognostics; for Reaumur witnessed a 

 swarm, which after leaving the hive at half-past one o'clock were over- 

 taken by a very heavy shower at three. " Iluber, i. 271. 



