The Cycle of the Year 
73 
story of the hive, thus causing the bees to return. At 
eight o’clock the following Saturday morning the queen 
was liberated and about nine o’clock the camera was focused 
on the entrance and front of the hive. In not more than 
fifteen minutes after everything was ready and as the wait¬ 
ing group was in attendance seated on adjoining hives, the 
swarm came out and the camera was put in action. When 
the (clipped) queen left the hive, the camera was stopped 
and she was put into a queen cage which was then tied to 
the limb of a tree, so situated that a swarm hanging on it 
would show against the sky. When the bees returned to 
the hive they were shaken into a box and thrown uncere¬ 
moniously into the branches of the tree around the caged 
queen. Those that returned to the hive were again brought 
out. In a short time the fanning observed in a natural 
cluster was set up and the bees gradually formed a shapely 
cluster. To get pictures of the settling of the swarm, the 
branch was now shaken, at first gently and then more and 
more vigorously, and the bees returned to the same branch 
in the exact manner of the clustering of a natural swarm. 
Here again the camera man was busy. The further treat¬ 
ment of the bees was exactly as with a natural swarm. 
Since the first pictures were not satisfactory, the per¬ 
formance was repeated twice the next year but without 
the aid of a natural swarm. The bees were shaken into an 
empty hive on the old stand with the entrance closed by a 
stick. The clustered bees were then loosened from the 
inside of the hive cover by pounding, and as the stick was 
removed the camera was started. The rushing out of the 
bees could not be distinguished from that of a natural swarm. 
The bees were then shaken into a box and placed on a branch 
about the caged queen. These unusual procedures suggest 
that the clustering is brought about by the attraction of the 
odor from the dorsal scent gland and that the bees may be 
induced to abandon their old hive by the shaking incident 
to this manipulation. It is also suggested that the queen 
plays an important part in clustering. 
