44 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SWARMING. 



Bees multiply, during the breeding season, with astonishing 

 rapidity ; it is, therefore, not to be wondered at that the young 

 brood should speedily produce crowding in the hive, thus be* 

 coming not only inconvenienced for room, but more than agreeably 

 warm: it is also supposed that the queen becomes alarmed at 

 the number and progress to maturity of the. royal larvae, which 

 indeed she would fain kill, were not she prevented from doing so 

 by the workers. While swarming is by no means to be forced, 

 yet if symptoms of a swarm present themselves, early, say in 

 April or May, you may permit it to take place — provided the 

 parent stock be still sufficiently strong in numbers — otherwise it 

 is of course highly disadvantageous to the well-being of the hive 

 as well as to the emigrants. I disapprove altogether of late 

 Swarms, i. e., allowing them to come off in July or August — 

 hence the utility of such hives as place this circumstance under 

 the control of the keeper. 



The most certain indications of swarming are, the hive ap- 

 pearing full of bees — clusters of them gathering on the outside, 

 and sometimes hanging from the alighting-board ; they also ne- 

 glect their daily toil and refrain from going abroad in search of 

 sweets, even though the weather be ever so inviting. Just be- 

 fore they take flight the hive is hushed, the bees are silent and 

 carefully loading themselves with provender for their journey. 

 For two or three nights prior to swarming, you will also hear a 

 peculiar humming noise within the hive ; the second swarm is 

 announced by a different sort of buzzing, being, according to 

 some writers, the result of a contest as to which of the two 

 queens shall lead off from the hive. It is the old queen who 

 leads off the first swarm. 



If a swarm be about to quit the hive, the slightest change of 

 weather will prevent their doing so ; but nothing so effectually as 

 a shower of rain : hence an excellent mode of preventing it, 

 when the bees cluster on the outside of the hive, by syringing 

 them with water from a common metallic syringe. When a 

 swarm leaves the hive, if it do not settle on some tree or bush, 

 but remains in the air, and you fear its going off to too great a 



