48 
IMPORTANT AND FAMILIAR INSECTS 
At irregular intervals during the early spring and summer, 
bees have the peculiar habit of swarming. Several reasons 
for swarming are given by bee-keepers, but no one pretends 
to be certain that he really knows the cause. It is a sort 
of revolt of the bees against their condition. Two of the 
commonest reasons given 
to explain swarming are 
the lack of room for the 
growing colony, and lack 
of food. 
When bees swarm, they 
usually alight on the limb 
of a tree and form a dense 
cluster. Here they hang 
from fifteen minutes to an 
hour before leaving for the 
woods. In a few cases 
bees have remained in this 
“ cluster ” state overnight, 
but usually they are lost 
unless they are collected 
inside of half an hour. 
The swarm consists of a 
large number of adult bees, 
workers, and drones, and 
usually a single queen. 
Various devices against 
swarming have been in¬ 
vented, but the most effective is to clip the wings of the queen 
in order that she may be kept at home, because the other 
bees usually follow her. This is done after the queen has 
taken her “ wedding-flight.” Her wings are clipped close 
to the body, but only on one side. The bees that then 
swarm soon come back and are easily controlled. While 
the bees are still in the air, a clean, empty hive is placed 
Figure 37. — Honey-bees Clustering 
at Swarming Time. 
