140 SWARMING AND HIVING, 



eggs, and fly with considerable difficulty, they are shy of 

 venturing out, except on fair, still days. If the weather is 

 very sultry, a swarm will sometimes issue as early as seven 

 o'clock in the morning ; but from 10 to 2, is the usual time, 

 and the majority of swarms come off from 11 to 1. Occa- 

 sionally, a swarm will venture out as late as 5 P. M. An 

 old Queen is seldom guilty of such a piece of indiscretion. 



I have in repeated instances witnessed the whole process 

 of swarming, in my observing hives. On the day fixed for 

 their departure, the Queen appears to be very restless, and 

 instead of depositing her eggs in the cells, she travels over 

 the combs, and communicates her agitation to the whole 

 colony. The emigrating bees fill themselves with honey, 

 some time before their departure : in one instance, I noticed 

 them laying in their supplies, more than two hours before 

 they left. A short time before the swarm rises, a tew bees 

 may generally be seen, sporting in the air, with their heads 

 turned always to the hive, occasionally flying in and out, as 

 though impatient for the important event to take place. At 

 length, a very violent agitation commences in the hive : the 

 bees appear almost frantic, whirling around in a circle, which 

 continually enlarges, like the circles made by a stone thrown 

 into still water, until at last the whole hive is in a state of the 

 greatest ferment, and the bees rush impetuously to the 

 entrance, and pour forth in one steady stream. Not a bee 

 looks behind, but each one pushes straight ahead, as though 

 flying " for dear life," or urged on by some invisible power, 

 in its headlong career. The Queen often does not come 

 out, until a large number have left, and is frequently so 

 heavy, from the large number of eggs in her ovaries, that 

 she falls to the ground, incapable of rising with the colony 

 into the air. 



The bees are very soon aware of her absence, and a most 



