i88 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



general rush for the daylight starts. Where a 

 hive is much overcrowded there will already be 

 a cluster of bees numbering many thousands 

 packed tightly together on the alighting-board, 

 and sometimes covering the whole face of the 

 hive. But this mass melts away directly the 

 swarming begins, the waiting bees taking wing all 

 but simultaneously with the others. 



It was anciently believed that the queen led the 

 swarm, but this view is not borne out by modern 

 observation. As often as not half the bees are on 

 the wing before she makes her appearance, and 

 sometimes she is among the very latest to leave, 

 or she may decide at the last moment not to go 

 at all. In this case the bees do not cluster, but 

 after a few minuted' wild tarantelle in the sunshine 

 they all troop back to the hive. 



When once the swarming-party has gone off, 

 the old hive seems to settle down to its ordinary 

 occupations as though nothing out of the way had 

 happened. The congested state of affairs no 

 longer exists, but otherwise the work of the hive 

 is proceeding in the usual way. The bees left 

 behind are mainly young workers who have not 

 yet commenced foraging, but there is always a 

 fair sprinkling of old workers and drones. Gener- 

 ally the hive is queenless for the time being, the 

 new queen not having yet broken from her cell. 

 There may be four or five queen-cells in various 

 stages of development, or rarely as many as a 



