144 SWARMING AND HIVING. 



I solve this problem in the economy of the bee, in the 

 same manner that I have solved so many others, by con- 

 sidering in what way, this arrangement conduces to the ad- 

 vantage of man. 



The honey-bee would have been of comparatively little 

 service to him, if instead of tarrying until he had sufficient 

 time to establish them in a hive in which to labor for him, 

 their instinct impelled them to decamp, without any delay, 

 from the restraints of domestication. In this, as in many 

 other things, we see that what on a superficial view, appear- 

 ed to be a very obvious imperfection, proves, on closer ex- 

 amination, to be a special contrivance to answer important 

 ends. 



To return to our new swarm. The Queen sometimes 

 alights first, and sometimes joins the cluster after it has 

 commenced forming. It is not usual for the bees to clus- 

 ter, unless the Queen is with them ; and when they do, and 

 yet afterwards disperse, it is frequently the case that the 

 Queen, after first rising with them, has been lost by falling 

 into some spot where she is unnoticed by the bees. In two 

 instances, I performed the following interesting experiment. 



Perceiving a hive in the very act of swarming, I contract- 

 ed the entrance so as to secure the Queen when she made 

 her appearance. In each case, at least one-third of the bees 

 came out, before the Queen presented herself to join them. 

 When I perceived that the swarm had given up their search 

 for her, and were beginning to return to the parent hive, I 

 placed her, with her wings clipped, on the limb of a small 

 evergreen tree : she crawled to the very top of the limb, as 

 if for the express purpose of making herself as conspicuous 

 as possible. A few bees noticed her, and instead of alight- 

 ing, darted rapidly away ; in a few seconds, the whole 

 colony were apprised of her presence, flew in a dense cloud 



