338 
BRITISH BEES. 
elevation, spread out to a distant horizon, which many 
of the more venturous spirits amongst them, urged by 
the teeming increase of their compatriots, have already 
traversed, and who themselves are now rejoicing in the 
establishment of offshoots, which speedily rival, in suc¬ 
cessful fruitfulness, the wide-branched productiveness of 
the parent stock. 
This is strictly the history of the hive, and the paral¬ 
lelism is complete, even to the conveyance with them of 
the preliminary needful stores. Before a swarm issues 
from the hive, some fly forth to select a dwelling-place, 
and return, it is presumed, to make their report. 
The population of the hive becoming so dense that 
there is no longer room for the free and unrestrained 
circulation of the ordinary processes of the community, 
and so hot from the inconvenient accumulation of such 
numbers,—for they extend sometimes to as many as 
fifty thousand,—instinct prompts a portion of the commu¬ 
nity to migrate. This disposition is further promoted 
by the progressive, or completed development of some of 
the young queens. The inveterate and internecine ani¬ 
mosity of these—anticipated rivalry, suggesting, it is 
surmised, the murderous desire, but being prevented from 
its indulgence by the defensive guardianship of several 
of the workers—urges the old queen to abandon at this 
conjuncture her royal metropolis. The inclination to do 
so, it would appear, is already foreseen by a very large 
body of her subjects, for if her departure be delayed bv 
her successor’s protracted incapacity for undertaking 
the sovereign rule, the intending emigrants, having al¬ 
ready abandoned all the labours of their old domi¬ 
cile preparatory to their issuing forth, will cluster in 
groups about the bee board until she is ready to emerge. 
