

338 THE INSECT WORLD. 
(Fig. 322) is sometimes spherical, sometimes pyramidal, and 
occasionally attains a weight of nine pounds, and may contain as 
many as forty thousand bees. From this moment, although they 


Fig. 322.—Cluster of Bees hanging to a branch, 
are uncovered, they remain still. Ina quarter of an hour every- 
thing becomes quiet, and the bees cease to hover about the cluster 
more than round an ordinary hive. Now is the moment to take 
possession of the swarm in a hive prepared beforehand to receive 
it. If delayed too long, the troop flies off, and establishes itself 
in some natural cavity, as the hollow of a tree, &e. The bees 
then return to their wild state. 
Under a warm climate where flowers abound, the hives may cast. 
many times following. The first swarm, however, is always the 
best. It is more numerous, and has before it more time to provision 
itself. If the weather remains favourable, it is not rare to see 
it send out a swarm itself three weeks after leaving the old hive. 
The old queen then leads the emigration of the second swarm, 
abandoning the colony she had lately founded. If the original 


