Swafming. 97 



the number, though she is by no means among the first, and 

 frequently is quite late in her exit. It is often asserted that 

 bees do no gathering on the day they swarm, previous to leav- 

 ing the hive. This is not true. Mr. Doolittle thinks they are 

 just as active as on other days. The assertion that bees always 

 cluster on the outside preliminary to swarming, is not true. 

 The crowded hive makes this common, though in a well 

 managed apiary it is very infrequent. The bees, once started 

 on their quest for a new home, after many uproarious gyrations 

 about the old one, dart forth to alight upon some bush, limb, 

 or fence, though in one case I knew the first swarm of 

 bees to leave at once for parts unknown, without even waiting 

 to cluster. After thus meditating for the space of from one 

 to three hours, upon a future course, they again take wing and 

 leave for their new home, which they have probably already 

 sought out. 



Some suppose the bees look up a home before leaving the 

 hive, while others claim that scouts are in search of one while 

 the bees are clustered. The fact that' bees take a right-line to 

 their new home, and fly too rapidly to look as they go, would 

 argue that a home is preempted, at least, before the cluster is 

 dissolved. The fact that the cluster remains sometimes for 

 hours — even over night — and at other times for a brief period, 

 would lead us to infer that the bees cluster while waiting for 

 a new home to be found. Yet, why do bees sometimes alight 

 after flying a long distance, as did a first swarm the past season 

 upon our College grounds? Was their journey long, so that 

 they must needs stop to rest, or were they flying at random, 

 not knowing whither they were going? 



If for any reason the queen should fail to join the bees, and 

 perhaps rarely when she is among them, they will, after having 

 clustered, (they rarely fail to cluster) return to their old home. 

 The youngest bees wiU remain in the old hiV^e, to which those 

 bees which are abroad in quest of stores wiU return. The 

 presence of young bees on the ground immediately after a 

 swarm has issued — those with flight too feeble to join the 

 rovers — ^wiU always mark the previous home of the emigrants. 



Soon, in seven or eight days, often later, if Italians, the first 

 queen will come forth from her cell, and in two or three days 

 she will, or may, lead a new colony forth ; but before she does 

 this, the peculiar note, known as the piping of the queen, 



7 



