ADVANCED GUARD OF THE BEES. 191 



enemy had taken possession of their hive, and were expel- 

 ling them from it by force. The whole community appear 

 in a state of emotion, and thousands are seen circling the 

 air in all directions. The first bees which leave the hive are 

 seen to return, hover an instant before the hive, and rise 

 into the air. The whole swarm then leave the hive attended 

 by the queen, and repair either to some previously selected 

 spot, or alight on the branch of an adjacent tree or 

 bush. 



It has long been a matter of speculation with apiarians, 

 whether the bees send out, what may be called their ad- 

 vanced guard, to select a proper place for the establishment 

 of their new colony. As far as our opinion may be valid, 

 we have not the slightest doubt of the fact, for it has 

 frequently come under our observation. We once possessed 

 a small apiary at a gentleman's house in Perthshire, and the 

 time of swarming of one of the hives was regularly known 

 by a small cluster of bees appearing in one of the chimneys, 

 which we were always obliged to cover with a sack to pre- 

 vent the bees from entering. 



Mr. Knight, in a letter addressed to Sir Joseph Banks, 

 and which is inserted in the Philosophical Transactions for 

 1807, has verified this fact. It is not, however, of recent 

 discovery; for numerous writers have mentioned it, especially 

 St. Jean de Crevecceur, in his letters du Cultivateur Ameri- 

 cain, the first of which is of 1 770, and at the sixty-second 

 page of the first volume, he thus expresses himself : " One of 

 the problems most difficult to solve, is to know when the bees 

 will swarm, and whether the swarm will remain in the hive 

 provided for them, or escape to establish themselves in the 

 cavity of some tree ; for when by the means of their emissa- 

 ries, they have chosen for themselves a retreat, it is not possible 

 to retain them in any hive which may be selected for them. I 

 have several times forced swarms to enter into hives which 

 I had prepared for them, but I always lost them towards 



