APIS. 339 



This condition will sometimes last a day or two^ and 

 thence of course all is confusion both within and with- 

 out the hive, for her subjects have suspended their la- 

 bours and she has suspended her egg-laying, and roams 

 wildly about within, striving, whenever she approaches 

 a royal cell, or a fully developed young queen, to attack 

 the latter, and destroy her by stinging her to death, or, 

 to tear the former to pieces to get at the imago within, 

 which indicates its apprehension by a shrill piping 

 sound. But she is forcibly dragged back from this api- 

 cidal purpose by the working bees which surround each, 

 and who now intermit their usual deference to prevent 

 this destruction, and bite her and drag her back. The 

 future queen of the abdicated throne having, during 

 this turmoil, returned from her wedding tour, and be- 

 ing still protected from slaughterous aggression, the old 

 queen indignantly issues forth. This exodus takes 

 place usually on a brilliant and warm day, between 

 twelve and three, — accordingly during the hottest hours. 

 This is the first swarm of the year, and if the season 

 be very genial it will take place in May. In this 

 migration she is accompanied by all her most faithful 

 lieges, which comprise, to the honour of beehood, by 

 very much the largest majority of the inhabitants, to 

 the number usually, in a well-stocked hive, of several 

 thousands, — say from ten to twenty, depending on the 

 population of the hive. 



Having thus issued forth in a body, they shortly alight 

 upon and about the branch of some adjacent tree, clus- 

 tering, in as close proximity as they can, to their royal 

 leader. In a natural state, when duly organized to pro- 

 ceed, they would thence start for the domicile that had 

 previously been selected by the emissaries above noted ; 



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