
HYMENOPTERA. 337 
Francis Huber often remarked that, in a swarm which had started, 
if the queen, who directed the flight, were seized and killed, im- 
mediately all the bees would return to the hive. It would seem 
that having lost their chief they acknowledged themselves inca- 
pable of forming a colony. 
A swarm never comes out except on a fine day, or to speak more 
accurately, at an hour of the day when the sun is shining, when 
the air is calm, and the sky clear. It is generally between ten 
o'clock in the morning and three o’clock in the afternoon. “We 
observed,” says Francis Huber, “in a hive all the signs which are 
| the forerunners of a cast for a swarm,—disorder and agitation ; 
| but a cloud passed before the sun, and quiet was restored to the 
_ hive; the bees thought no more of swarming. An hour after, the 
sun having shown itself again, the tumult recommenced, increased 
| very rapidly, and the swarm set out on its journey.”’ * 
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At the moment which precedes their exit, the buzzing increases 
in the hive. Some of the workers go out first, as if to ascertain 
the state of the atmosphere. The moment the queen has passed 
the threshold, the emigrants follow in a crowd behind her; in 
an instant the air is darkened with bees, which crowd together 
and form a thick cloud. The swarm rises whirling round about in 
the air; it poises itself for a few minutes over the hive, to allow 
time to reconnoitre, and for the laggards to join, and then goes 
| off at full speed. 
The queen does not make choice of the place where the company 
shall find shelter. When a branch of a tree has been selected 
by a certain number, they fix themselves on it. Many others follow 
them. When a great many have collected the queen joins 
|the throng, and brings in her train the rest of the troop. The 
group already formed becomes larger and larger every instant. 
Those which are still scattered about in the air hasten to join the 
majority, and very soon all together compose one solid mass or 
clump of bees clinging to each other by their legs. This cluster 
* In general, bees very much dislike bad weather ; when they are foraging in the 
country, the appearance of a single cloud before the sun causes them to return home 
precipitately. However, if the sky is uniformly dark and cloudy, and if there are 
not any sudden alternations of darkness and light, they are not easily alarmed, and 
the first drops of a gentle rain hardly drive them away from their hunting- 
ground. 
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