XI 



THE SWARM 



In early summer when the season is favorable for the 

 storing of honey, the bees prosper and their hive is soon 

 " boiling over " with occupants. 



The home is now too small for the multitude, and the 

 queen-mother, hearing the piping of a young queen, instead 

 of executing her, gives and bequeaths to her all of the 

 brood comb, honey comb, unhatched young, indoor bees 

 and present stores, and taking nothing with her but a great 

 mass of her loyal subjects sallies forth to found a new house. 



The foragers that happen to be abroad when the exodus 

 takes place remain with the young queen and help her build 

 up the fortunes of her family. 



Sometimes a second swarm leaves soon after the first, 

 with which goes the young queen, leaving a still younger 

 one, or, it may be, one of the same age to attend to home 

 affairs. When the colony is prosperous and swarming 

 active, the bees do not allow the queens to kill each other. 



Sometimes as many as three swarms are cast in one 

 season from the same hive, and even more ; indeed, we 

 hear of as many as eleven having gone from a hive in 

 Carolina. These new swarms each cast one or more, so 

 that the astonished owner finished the season with twenty- 

 two swarms, while a number more had escaped, as he had 

 no hives in which to put them. 



Swammerdam tells an equally remarkable story of a bee- 

 keeper who had only one hive left after the Count de Mans- 



