On the (Economy of Bees. SOS 



place J though I was much inclined to beliere the inter- 

 course between the hives to be hostile and predatorv. The 

 same kind of intercourse continued, in a greater or less de- 

 gree, durnig ei^ht succeeding days ; and, though I watched 

 them very closely, nothing occurred to induce me to sup- 

 pose that their intercourse was not of an amicable kind. On 

 the tenth morning, however, their friendship ended, as sud- 

 den and violent friendships often do, in a quarrel ; and they 

 fought most furiously ; and after this there was no more vi- 

 siting. 



Two years subsequent to this period I observed the same 

 kind of intercourse to take place between two hives of my 

 own bees, which were situated about two hundred yards di- 

 stant from each other : they passed from each hive to the 

 other just as they did in the preceding instance, and a si- 

 milar degree of agitation was observable. In this instance, 

 however, their friendship appeared to be of much shorter 

 duration, for they fought most desperately on the fifth day, 

 and then, as in the last mentioned case, all further visiting 

 <:eased. 



I have some reason to believe that the kind of intercourse 

 I have described, which I have often seen, and which is by- 

 no means uncommon, not unfrequentlv ends in a junction 

 of the two swarms ; for one instance caqie under my ob- 

 servation, many years ago, in which the labouring bees, 

 under circumstances perfectly similar to those I have de- 

 scribed, wholly disappeared, leaving the drones in peaceable 

 possession of the hive, but without any thing to live upon. 

 I have also reasons for believing, that whenever a junction 

 of two swarms, with their property, is agreed upon, that 

 •which proposes to remove, immediately, or soon afterwards, 

 unites with the other swarm, and returns to the deserted hive 

 during the day only to carry off the honey ; for, having exa- 

 mined at night a hive from which I suspected the bees to be 

 migrating, I found it without a single inhabitant. I 

 vias led to make the examination by information I had re- 

 ceived, from a very accurate observer, that all the bees would 

 ibtn be absent. A very considerable quantity of honey was 

 in this instance left in the hive, without any guards to defend 

 C it : 



