bee-keeper's manual. 281 



it is somewhat earlier. Occasional swarms may issue 

 in April, and also as late as July, and even in October, 

 instances are found of such a result. When a swarm 

 issues in October, it embraces the whole family ; and it 

 may, perhaps, be more properly a desertion. The two 

 instances of this nature, that occurred in my own apiary, 

 and before alluded to, came out in the month of October, 

 leaving both honey and larvae behind. Powerful, indeed, 

 must be the cause that forces a family of bees to leave 

 their domicil at such a period, and depart on the wing 

 to an uncertain destiny. The bee has the same natural 

 attachment for its young that pervades all animate 

 nature. When a piece of brood-comb is extracted con- 

 taining larvae, the bees adhere to it with the utmost te- 

 nacity ; and the cause of such an unfeeling, and appa- 

 rently uncalled-for desertion, may appear strange to one 

 not having a tangible idea of the true reason. My opin- 

 ion on this question is, that the hives being but partially 

 filled with combs, not over one-quarter part, and there 

 not being over one-tenth the number of bees that con- 

 stitute a populous family, the idea of wintei'ing in a place 

 where no warmth could be generated by them, and hav- 

 ing had a foretaste of what was to come, in a few 

 cold days previous to their departure, with the en- 

 trance all around the hives open as in summer, they fore- 

 saw that death must ensue if they thus remained, and 

 having, probably, sent out an embassy to find some hol- 

 low tree in which they would be less exposed to the 

 rigors of the weather, they departed. The reader may 

 recollect, that I stated, in a previous allusion to this 



