PRIMARY SWARM. 211 
“Some fine, warm morning in May or June, the whole atmos- 
phere seems alive with thousands of bees, whirling and buzzing, 
passing and repassing, wheeling about in rapid circles, like a 
group of maddened bacchanals. Out runs the good housewife, 
with frying-pan and key—the orthodox instruments for ringing— 
and never ceases her rough music, till the bees have settled. 
This custom, as old as the birth of Jupiter, is one of the most 
pleasing and exciting of the countryman’s life; and there is an 
old colored print of bee-ringing still occasionally met with on 
the walls of a country-inn, that has charms for us, and makes us 
think of bright, sunny weather in the dreariest November day. 
Whether, as Aristotle says, it affects them through pleasure or 
fear, or whether, indeed, they hear it at all, isstill as uncertain as 
that philosopher left it; but we can wish no better luck to every 
bee-master that neglects the tradition, than that he may lose 
every swarm for which he omits to raise this time-honored con- 
cert.” 
414. The queen sometimes alights first, and sometimes 
joins the cluster after it has begun to form. The bees do 
not usually settle, unless she is with them; and when they 
do, and then disperse, it is frequently the case that, after 
first rising with them, she has fallen, from weakness, into 
some spot where she is unnoticed by the bees. 
Perceiving a hive in the act of swarming, the writer on 
two occasions, contracted the entrance, to secure the queen 
when she should make her appearance. In each case, at 
least one-third of the bees came out before she joined them. 
As soon as the swarm ceased searching for her, and were 
returning to the parent-hive, he placed her, with her wings 
clipped, on a limb of a small evergreen tree, when she 
crawled to the very top of the limb, as if for the express 
purpose of making herself as conspicuous as possible. The 
few bees, that first noticed her, instead of alighting, darted 
rapidly to their companions; in a few seconds, the whole 
colony was apprised of her presence, and flying in a dense 
cloud, began quietly to cluster around her. Bees, when on 
the wing, intercommunicate with such surprising rapidity, 
that telegraphic signals are scarcely more instantaneous. 
