PEIMAKT SWARM. 213 



any bees around the limb. The tree was cut clown the follow- 

 iug Winter, and no trace of comb was found in the hollow. 

 It proved concUisively, 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 of 

 comb, each about eight inches square. Mr. Henry M. Zol- 

 hckoffer, 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 amullen-stalk, which, when col- 



