Preparation for Swarming. i ji 



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 swai-m 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 fiy too rapidly to look as 

 they go, would argue that a home is preempted, at least, 

 before the cluster is dissolved. The fact that the cluster 

 remains sometimes for hours — even over night — and at 

 other times fot 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 



