Preparation for Swarming. 141 
and outside the hive, a large part of the worker bees— 
being off duty for the day and having previously loaded 
their honey sacs—rush forth from the hive as if alarmed by 
the cry of fire, the queen among the number; though she 
is by no means among the first, and frequently is quite late 
in her exit, It is often asserted that bees do no gathering 
on the day they swarm, previous to leaving the hive. This 
is not true. Mr. Doolittle thinks they are just as active as 
on other days. The queen however is off duty for some 
time before the swarm leaves. She even lays scantily for 
two or three days prior to this event. This makes the 
queen lighter, and prepares her for her long wearying 
flight. In her new home she does no laying for several 
hours. The assertion that bees always cluster on the out- 
side preliminary to swarming, is not true. The crowded 
hive makes this common, though in a well managed apiary 
it is very infrequent. The bees, once started on their quest 
for a new home, after many uproarious gyrations about the 
old one, dart forth to alight upon some bush, limb, or 
fence, though in one case I. knew the first swarm of bees 
to leave at once for parts unknown, without even waiting 
to cluster. After thus meditating for the space of from one 
to three hours, upon a future course, they again take wing 
and leave for their new home, which they have probably 
already sought out, and fixed up. 
Some suppose the bees look up a home before leaving 
the hive, while others claim that scouts are in search of one 
while the bees are clustered. The fact that bees take a 
right-line to their new home, and fly too rapidly to look as 
‘they go, would argue that a home is preémpted, at least, 
before the cluster is dissolved. The fact that the cluster 
remains sometimes for hours—even over night—and at 
other times for a brief period, would lead us to infer that 
the bees cluster while waiting for a new home to be 
found. Yet, why do bees sometimes alight after flying a 
long distance, as did a first swarm the past season upon our 
College grounds? Was their journey long, so that they 
must needs stop to rest, or were they flying at random, not 
knowing whither they were going? This matter is no 
longer a matter of question. I now know of several cases 
