338 



THE INSECT WOELD. 



(Fig. 322) is sometimes spherical, sometimes pyramidal, and 

 occasionally attains a weight of nine pounds, and may contain as 

 many as forty thousand bees. From this moment, although they 



Fig. 322. Cluster of Bees hanging to a branch. 



are uncovered, they remain still. In a quarter of an hour every- 

 thing becomes quiet, and the bees cease to hover about the cluster 

 more than round an ordinary hive. Now is the moment to take 

 possession of the swarm in a hive prepared beforehand to receive 

 it. If delayed too long, the troop flies off, and establishes itself 

 in some natural cavity, as the hollow of a tree, &c. The bees 

 then return to their wild state. 



Under a warm climate where flowers abound, the hives may cast 

 many times following. The first swarm, however, is always the 

 best. It is more numerous, and has before it more time to provision 

 itself. If the weather remains favourable, it is not rare to see 

 it send out a swarm itself three weeks after leaving the old hive. 

 The old queen then leads the emigration of the second swarm, 

 abandoning the colony she had lately founded. If the original 



