Swarming. 63 



Her majesty, after taking a short flight round the 

 garden, just to pick out a good place, alighted on the 

 under side of one of the branches of a small stand- 

 ard pear tree, and was immediately hidden by a cloud 

 of about twenty thousand bees, which settled on and 

 round her. 



Buz was one of the first to take up her position, 

 but, hardly liking to pitch on the queen, attached 

 herself to the branch close to her, and was at once 

 used by several other bees as a convenient thing 

 to cling to ; these in their turn were treated in the 

 same way, till a lump of bees was formed as big as 

 a good-sized cabbage, and Buz found it rather hard 

 work to hold on. 



" It must be uncommonly hot in the middle, 

 though," she thought : " better be here than there." 



At this moment the gardener approached. His 

 coat was off, and his shirt-sleeves were rolled up. 

 He knew the bees would not sting him for shaking 

 them into the new hive he carried, but he had to 

 roll up his sleeves for fear of one crawling up and 

 being hurt. 



He now held the hive upside down under the 

 swarm, took hold of the end of the bough on which 

 it hung, and gave a sharp, strong jerk, which dis- 

 lodged it and sent it right into the hive. There 



