28 FOUNDATION OF A BEE COLONY 



After a few moments of this stirring commotion, 

 the cloud is seen to approach a tree or, if there be 

 not one handy, a bush, or post, and gradually 

 it will be seen to be getting smaller and smaller 

 as the flying squadrons converge to a given spot. 

 On this spot the queen, who has perhaps not 

 been on the wing for years, has elected to rest 

 for a time, and gradually the whole mass of bees 

 shrinks into a compact, pear-shaped cluster. After 

 a time all is still, and the swarm might rest there 

 hours without any one being aware of its position. 

 At this juncture the bee-keeper usually steps in. 

 Providing himself with a straw skep or box, he 

 holds it beneath the cluster, and, violently shaking 

 the bough, precipitates the bees into the recep- 

 tacle. If he has succeeded in shaking in the queen, 

 all the other bees will follow, and in a few minutes 

 the whole swarm will be quiet in the skep. Should 

 the queen still be on the bough, those shaken into 

 the box will leave it and return to the queen. 

 If by any chance during these manipulations the 

 queen should be lost or killed, the bees, after 

 searching for a time round the bough, will return 

 to the old hive. 



Supposing, however, that the bee-keeper does 

 not capture the swarm after it has settled, it will 

 remain there for a time, longer or shorter, accord- 

 ing to circumstances. I have known one stay only 

 half an hour, and on another occasion one remained 

 all night and built a comb on the bough. It 



