SIGNS OF SWARMING. 175 



We give the above story, on the authority of an article pub- 

 lished in les Archives des Decouvertes .- we do not however give 

 our unqualified assent to it : on the principles that the enclos- 

 ing of a swarm of bees in a bag is an operation almost im- 

 practicable, and the man who attempts to execute it must have 

 a method of handling those insects, to which we admit we are 

 decided strangers : and, secondly, that it is a good swarm, 

 which consists of three thousand bees, the weight of which, 

 we calculate to be about three pounds ; if then a swarm will 

 yield three or four pounds of honey, the swarm must weigh 

 about seven or eight pounds, a weight unknown in this 

 country. Ducouedic indeed affirms that he has had swarms 

 from twelve to eighteen and even twenty pounds ! ! We may 

 be permitted to express our disbelief of this report of Mr. 

 Ducouedic ; at the same time, we allow that we have seen 

 swarms in Switzerland and the south of France, which would 

 in this country be held as direct phenomena. A swarm of 

 twenty pounds' weight would comprise a population of above 

 twenty-five thousand bees, the eggs of which must have 

 been laid by one queen bee in the space of a few months, 

 independently of the eggs, embryo and young bees still re- 

 maining in the hive ; a computation which exceeds all 

 credibility. 



The most important points with which a young apiarian 

 should make himself acquainted, are the signs which gene- 

 rally present themselves for some days previously to the 

 actual departure of the swarm, and they may be reckoned 

 six in number. 1st, An extraordinary number of bees 

 which hang in clusters about the entrance of the hive ; 2nd, 

 an apparent idleness amongst the bees, as if a temporary 

 cessation from all labour had been agreed upon, 3rd, an 

 unusual bustle amongst the drones. 4th, A sudden silence 

 succeeding a violent uproar. 5th, The continual motion of 

 the wings of the bees, which stand at the entrance ; and 6th, 

 violent commotions at the entrance of the hives, the bees 



