THE BEE NATION. 233 



breaks Ere the sun is high begins the prelude. 



Louder and louder peals the music ; the swarms come out, 

 and this time in earnest, for now on the war-dance depends 

 throne and life. There, on the pear-tree, the crowd grows 



denser and denser You may count twenty thousand, 



well armed for fight and work." 



After the swarm has been caught in the swarm-net, it is 

 placed in the prepared hive, carefully cleaned within. 

 " Crowds rush out of the mouth of the hive ; but they soon 

 stop, turn round, and beat their wings joyfully. They know 

 that their queen is inside. The swarm is successful. The 

 wildest and most unruly gather at the entrance and hum 

 joyfully. A small portion of the army still remain on the 

 tree ; but they soon begin to move, and search up and down 

 for the queen. They hear the hum, fly off, and on to the 

 hive. The bough is soon deserted, and no corpse marks the 



field of battle The most impetuous soon come out 



and scan the hive and the vicinity. Building begins inside ; 

 soon there is a rustling and sweeping, presently a flying off 

 and carrying. Yet a few lively preliminaries, and all feel at 

 home : the new state begins to flourish. But how is it in 

 the old hive ? Peace has entered there. Many caskets 

 truly are empty, for the travellers could not be sent out into 

 the unknown with empty hands. . . . Many a child, repent- 

 ing the leaving, returns to the mother-home, and the younger 

 sisters in the cradle are growing vigorously. The old mother 

 may have gone, but hopeful daughters lie in the silence of 

 the royal chamber ; until they are ready to rule the house- 

 hold, all goes quietly on its way ; the house is in perfect 

 order. The domestic party-strife is over ; each member 

 goes peacefully to its work. The brilliant part, however, of 

 all bee-keeping is the swarming time, for the poesy that is 

 therein. In natural swarming is the poesy of bee-keeping." 



It is always the old queen who heads the first, or primary 



swarming time. The ' ' Tilt " arises from the free, the " Quak " from 

 the still enclosed queens, and is caused by the expiration of the air 

 through the stigmata or air-holes found on either side of the body. 

 That these noises can have no object save that of mutual communi- 

 cation is proved by the fact that a young queen emits no " Quak " after 

 her emergence, while a free queen only calls when she hears the other, 

 and remains dumb when she has no rival to fear. All this only, as 

 said, concerns the young queens. The old queens do not emit this cry. 



