PRIMARY SVARM. . 217 



"air line," to a hollow tree, which they have never seen, and 

 which may be the only one among thousands where they can 

 find a suitable abode. 



These views are confirmed by the repeated instances in 

 which a few bees have been noticed inquisitively prying into 

 a hole in a hollow tree, or the cornice of a building, and have, 

 before long, been followed by a whole colony. 



About fifty yards from our home apiary, there was a large 

 hollow oak tree, which we called "The Squirrel's Oak," be- 

 cause every season it sheltered a family of these pretty ani- 

 mals. One Summer we noticed for several days some bees 

 flying, in and out of a hole, in one of its largest limbs. It 

 seemed to us that they were cleaning the hollow, and we sup- 

 posed that a swarm had taken possession of it. A change in 

 the weather having taken place, the swarming preparations 

 were discontinued, and we never again noticed any bees around 

 the limb. The tree was cut down the following Winter, and 

 no trace of comb was found in the hollow. It proved conclu- 

 sively that the bees we had seen were scouts in search of a 

 lodging. 



416. The swarm sometimes remains until the next day, 

 where bees have clustered in leaving the hive, and instances 

 are not unfrequent of a more protracted delay. 



If the weather is hot when they first cluster, and the sim 

 shines directly upon them, they will often leave before they 

 have found a suitable habitation. Sometimes the queen of 

 emigrating bees, being heavy with eggs, unaccustomed to fly, 

 is compelled to alight, before she can reach their intended 

 home. Queens under such circumstances, are occasionally un- 

 willing to take wing again, and the poor bees sometimes at- 

 tempt to lay the foundations of their colony on - fence-rails, 

 hay-stacks, or other unsuitable places. 



Mr. Wagner once knew a swarm of bees to lodge under the 

 lowermost limb of an isolated oak-tree, in a corn-field. It 

 was not discovered until the corn was harvested, in September. 

 Those who found it, mistook it for a recent swarm, and in 



