LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD. 165 



EVENING FIFTEENTH 



HIVE BEES. 



Rene6. What is meant by swarming, Aunt 

 Mary ? I heard the gentleman who owned the 

 bee-hives I saw in the country the other day, 

 say, that the bees in one of the hives swarmed 

 three times last season, and twiee this. What 

 did he mean by that ? 



Aunt M. The queen bee sometimes lays 

 from sixty to seventy thousand eggs in the 

 course of the season ; and if all the bees pro- 

 duced from these, in addition to those already in 

 the hive, were suffered to remain, it would be 

 too small to accommodate them. This is pre- 

 vented by large parties or swarms of bees occa- 

 sionally leaving the hive. 



15 



