THE HONEY-BEE. 
14-5 
that swarms depart only during the warmest part of 
the day, when a full third of the workers are busily 
engaged in the fields ; these, returning home, resume 
their labours, and carry on the necessary operations 
of the hive. Besides, “the Queen has left an immense 
quantity of brood of all ages, which is soon hatched, 
and which renders the population as great after 
swarming ns before. Thus the hive is perfectly 
capable of affording a second colony without being 
too much impoverished. The third and fourth swarms 
weaken it more sensibly, hut the inhabitants always 
remain in sufficient numbers to preserve the course 
of their labours uninterrupted, and the losses are soon 
replaced by the great fecundity of the Queen. And, 
farther, many of those workers who, in the agitation 
of the moment, had followed the crowd, do not even- 
tually become members of the new colony. When 
the delirium attendant on swarming seizes on the 
bees, the whole rush forward, accumulate towards 
the entrance of the hive, and are heated in such a 
degree that they perspire copiously ; those near the 
bottom, and which support the weight of the rest, 
seem perfectly drenched, their wings grow moist, they 
are incapable of flight and, even when able to escape, 
they advance no farther than the alighting board of 
the hive, and soon return ; those, too, that have lately 
left their cells, remain behind the swarm, still feeble, 
for they could not support themselves in flight ; here, 
therefore, are also many recruits to people what we 
may have thought a deserted habitation.”* 
* Huber, p. 165. 
K 
