THE SWARMING OF BEES 67 



evinced any interest in human beings, except when 

 they obstruct the bee-path. However, most of our 

 ancient customs were founded in utility, and it is not 

 likely that this traditional pandemonium would have 

 been practised for centuries without some reason. 

 Mr. Root, who thinks before he speaks, suggests that 

 the swarm follows the queen and the scouts through 

 listening to their song, that of the queen being easily 

 distinguished from the hum of the workers when on 

 the wing; and that it is quite possible, therefore, 

 that the noise, if loud enough to drown the voice of 

 the queen, would cause confusion on the part of the 

 flying bees and a consequent settling. But from 

 what we remember of our own early experience, we 

 are convinced that the bees were less confused by 

 the noise than were the people engaged in making it. 



The next most widely practised of the ancient 

 methods is that of throwing dirt on the swarm to 

 stop it; this certainly is efficacious if there happens 

 to be enough loose earth at hand. However, throw- 

 ing dirt is a reactionary performance in the physical 

 as well as the moral sense; and usually the bee- 

 keeper who throws dirt at a soaring swarm must 

 needs stop soon to get the motes out of his own eyes 

 before he is able to see where the swarrn has alighted. 



In these enlightened days everyone who has a 

 cherry tree or an apple tree, a currant bush or a 

 potato patch, is sure to have a fountain pump of 

 some sort; and never is this instrument a greater 

 boon than when it throws a fine spray upon an 

 absconding swarm of bees. It brings them to a stop 



