THE HONEY-BEE. 145 



that swarms depart only during the warmest part of 

 the day, when a full third of the workers are busily 

 engaged in the fields ; these, returning home, resume 

 their labours, and carry on the necessary operations 

 of the hive. Besides, e ' the Queen has left an immense 

 quantity of brood of all ages, which is soon hatched, 

 and which renders the population as great after 

 swarming as before. Thus the hive is perfectly 

 capable of affording a second colony without being 

 too much impoverished. The third and fourth swarms 

 weaken it more sensibly, but the inhabitants always 

 remain in sufficient numbers to preserve the course 

 of their labours uninterrupted, and the losses are soon 

 replaced by the great fecundity of the Queen. And, 

 farther, many of those workers who, in the agitation 

 of the moment, had followed the crowd, do not even- 

 tually become members of the new colony. When 

 the delirium attendant on swarming seizes on the 

 bees, the whole rush forward, accumulate towards 

 the entrance of the hive, and are heated in such a 

 degree that they perspire copiously ; those near the 

 bottom, and which support the weight of the rest, 

 seem perfectly drenched, their wings grow moist, they 

 are incapable of flight and, even when able to escape, 

 they advance 3$ farther than the alighting board of 

 the hive, and soon return ; those, too, that have lately 

 left their cells, remain behind the swarm, still feeble, 

 for they could not support themselves in flight ; here, 

 therefore, are also many recruits to people what we 

 may have thought a deserted habitation/" * 

 * Huber, p. 165. 



