214 NATURAL SWARMIXt;. 



wlien otlier colonies are busily at woi-k, we may look with 

 j^reat confidence for a swarm, unless the weather prove sud- 

 denly unfavorable. 



If the weather is ver}' sultry, a swarm will sometimes issue 

 as early as seven o'clock in the morning'; but from ten a. m._, 

 to two p. M.^ is the usual time; and the majority of swarms 

 come off when the sun is within an hour of the meridian. Oc- 

 casionally, a swarm ventures out as late as five p. m.; but an 

 old fjueen is seldom guilty of such an indiscretion. 



41 1. Wc have repeatedly witnessed in our observing- 

 hives (374) the whole process of swarming. On the day 

 fixed for departure, the queen is veiy restless, and instead 

 of depositing her eggs in the cells, roams over the combs, and 

 communicates her agitation to the whole colony. The emi- 

 grating bees usually fill themselves with honey, just before 

 their departure; but in one instance, we saw them lay in their 

 sui^plies more than two hours before they left. A short time 

 before the swarm rises, a few bees may generally be seen 

 sporting in the air, with their heads turned always to the 

 hive; and they occasionally fiy in and out, as though impa- 

 tient for the important event to take place. At length, a 

 violent agitation commences in the hive; the bees appear al- 

 most frantic, whirling aroimd in circles continually enlarging, 

 like those made by a stone thrown into still water, until, at 

 last, the whole hive is in a state of the greatest ferment, and 

 the bees, rushing impetuously to the entrance, pour forth in 

 one steady stream. Not a bee looks behind, but each pushes 

 straight ahead, as though flying '*for dear life,'' or urged on 

 by some invisible power, in its headlong career, 



412. Often, the queen does not come out until many have 

 left; and she is sometimes so heavy, from the number of eggs 

 in her ovaries, that she falls to the ground, incapable of 

 rising with her colony into the air (40). The bees soon miss 

 her, and a very interesting scene may now be witnessed. Dili- 

 gent search is at once made for their lost mother; the swarm 

 scattering in all directions, so that the leaves of the adjoining 



