BEES. 415 



the v/eig'ht of water hang-ing- upon them, Vv-ill burst, imd 

 render iill the labour of the operator useless. 



The people thus rapidly coming- into existence, where are 

 its future governors f* Watch the old queen as the spring* 

 advances, the period when all these changes are at their 

 climax, and you will he more than ever astonished at the 

 wondrous phenomena of the bee-mind. See how restlessly 

 she runs about. Now she seems about to go on laying- 

 eggs ; but hurriedly withdraws without doing so. jNo 

 wonder she is agitated. She is about to abdicate; not 

 about to lay down the cares and glory of sovereignty, cer- 

 tainly ; but about to quit her established, peaceable, and 

 quiet kingdom, to go she knows not whither, with a part 

 of her subjects, exposed to she knows not what accidents 

 before she may again find herself by her comfortable, regal, 

 warm comb (her fire) side. But she respects the laws of 

 nature, and obeys them. In those cells which she run^i 

 over in so much agitation, larks her successor, waiting but 

 for the proper hour to ascend the throne. How easily she 

 could tear open the cells and destroy her! But a power 

 greater than ambition withholds her. The bees no longer 

 pay her their usual attention. An idea of divided alle- 

 giance seems troubling them. They get as excited as their 

 queen. Some terrible calamity — civil war, perhaps — im- 

 pends. Oh, no ! the bees are at once too sensible and toa 

 unselfish. They divide — perhaps take leave of each other 

 affectionately — and off goes the first swarm, led by their 

 reluctant but duty-obeying monarch. 



The swarm does not go oft^ at an early period of the day, 

 or at a very late one, but generally starts from its parent 

 hive between ten in the morning to three or four in the 

 afternoon, although instances have been known of swarms 

 starting as early as seven in the morning, and as late as five 

 in the afternoon. This instinct is useful enough to the pro- 

 prietor who is anxiously expecting a swarm, as he need not 

 commence his watch before seven or eight, and is released 

 about four. It seems rather strange that the rightful queen 

 should always go off with the swarm instead of remaining 

 in office and sending the newly emancipated princess, if she 

 may be so called, to take charge of the swarm. But so it is, 

 and almost every queen-bee owes her throne to usurpation, 



