PRIMARY SWARM. 213 
any bees around the limb. The tree was cut down the follow- 
ing Winter, and no trace of comb was found in the hollow. 
It proved conclusively, 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 sun 
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, and unaccus- 
tomed to fly, is compelled to alight, before she can reach 
their intended home. Queens, under such circumstances, 
are occasionally unwilling to take wing again, and the poor 
bees sometimes attempt to lay the foundations of their col- 
ony 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 Sep- 
tember. Those who found it, mistook it for a recent swarm, 
and in brushing it down to hive it, broke off three pieces ot 
comb, each about eight inches square. Mr. Henry M. Zol- 
Nickoffer, of Philadelphia, informed us that he knew a swarm 
to settle on a willow-tree in that city, in a lot owned by the 
Pennsylvania Hospital; it remained there for some time, 
and the boys pelted it with stones, to get possession of its 
comb and honey. 
If the Apiary is located in the woods, and the bees are 
allowed to swarm, they may settle on high trees, and the 
bee-master, unless some special precautions are used, will 
lose much time in hiving his swarms. 
417. Having noticed that swarming bees will almost 
always alight wherever they see others clustered, we 
found that they can be determined to some selected spot 
by an old black hat, or even a mullen-stalk; which, when col- 
