The Swarm 



disease, or war. No, the exile has long 

 been planned, and the favourable hour 

 patiently awaited. Were the hive poor, 

 had it suffered from pillage or storm, had 

 misfortune befallen the royal family, the 

 bees would not forsake it. They leave it 

 only when it has attained the apogee of 

 its prosperity ; at a time when, after the 

 arduous labours of the spring, the im- 

 mense palace of wax has its 120,000 well- 

 arranged cells overflowing with new honey, 

 and with the many-coloured flour, known 

 as " bees' bread," on which nymphs and 

 larvae are fed. 



Never is the hive more beautiful than 

 on the eve of its heroic renouncement, in 

 its unrivalled hour of fullest abundance 

 and joy; serene for all its apparent excite- 

 ment and feverishness. 



Let us endeavour to picture it to our- 

 selves, not as it appears to the bees, for 

 we cannot tell in what magical, formidable 

 47 



