86 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



CHAPTER XV 



SWARM CATCHING, HIVING, AND TRANSFERRING. 



Perhaps the one stage in bee-keeping that requires the least 

 protection and a minimum of courage is "swarm-catching" — that 

 is, taking natural swarms after they have alighted in a cluster 

 on a bush or other object they have chosen for the purpose. To 

 me it is one of the most interesting sights in Nature to watch - 

 a swarm leaving the parent stock, rising on the wing, and perform- 

 ing beautiful, mazy evolutions like a country dance mid-air, to 

 the accompaniment of a soft, melodious, gentle hum, so indicative 

 of peace, goodwill, and enjoyment at the prospect of establishing 

 a successful home of their own ; the main body keeping up these 

 beautiful movements whilst the scouts are flying hither and thither 

 in search of a suitable spot on which to alight ; and then to see 

 them hasten to a bush in thousands, and threading in and out 

 amongst the foliage, now here, then there, until the scouts trumnet 

 forth the call to assemble. I have never yet discovered that call, 

 but it must be well known to the bees ; for when the spot on which 

 to alight is found, and the call made, you will see all the bees 

 that are on the wing head towards it, even those that form the 

 most distant circle. 



When the place of assemblage is found, what a change takes 

 place in their song ! from the gentle, peaceful hum to one of ecs- 

 tatic delight. Note again, if the bees have made up their mind 

 to go farther afield to form a new home, there will be a change 

 in their movements and in their song. Instead of making easy, 

 graceful movements to and fro, the whole swarm will become 

 agitated, the scouts will be called in, and their song becomes one 

 of great disappointment, not to them, but to you, when you see 

 your cherished hope rising in the air like a solid mass, and with 

 a sharp cry and rapid movement they make for — you know not 

 where. "But," you say, "I was given to understand that bees 

 were always led by the queen — that she gave the call, and directed 

 their movements ; — is not that why they beat the tom-tom or ring 

 the frying-pan with the door-key?" Not a bit of it. That is an 

 old superstition, grown out of a custom declaring the ownership 



