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 the 

 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 thick 

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

 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 still 

 scattered about in the air hasten to join the majority, and very 

 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 a 

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

 From this moment, although they are uncovered, they remain 

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

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



* In general, bees very much dislike bad weather ; when they are foraging in the 

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

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

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

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

 hunting-ground. 



