Though the hive be amply stored with honey and wax, and the young brood gradually approaching to maturity seems to leave nothing to be desired by the bees, they all of a sudden desert their ha- . bitation to go in quest of another. For this inci dent, which is called swarming, there is no ostensible cause, nor do the reasons assigned for it by different observers prove satisfactory in our estimation ; for its occurrence is irregular, and its frequency is uncertain. According to common apprehension, swarming en sues from a hive being overstocked with bees, and especially from a young queen seeking a new dwel ling. It never takes place, we acknowledge, unless the bees be numerous; but there arc so many excep tions, that we cannot say it is from wanting room : and instead of the young queen, it is always the old one that leads out the swarm: nay, should an old queen have conducted a swarm of this year, she will also be found at the head of the first which next year leaves the hive. Each subsequent colony departing is led by a young queen. An old queen• never leaves her hive until she has deposited eggs which will be come future queens, nor until her principal laying of the eggs producing drones is over ; the common bees construct 'royal cells only, while she lays those eggs which will be transformed to drones ; and after this laying terminates, her belly being more slender, she is better able to fly ; whereas it is previously so heavy and surcharged with eggs, that she can hardly drag herself along. One chief cause or concomitant of swarming apparently consists in the agitation of the queen. She is suddenly affected, hastily traverses the combs, abandoning that Slow and steady progres sion which she ordinarily exhibits : her agitation is communicated to the bees; they crowd to the outlets of the hive, and the queen escaping first, they hasten to follow her. Commonly the whole take but a shOrt flight, and the queen having alighted, the bees clus ter around her. This constitutes the new swarm. With regard to the precursors of swarming, there is no infallible guide : those on which observers are ac customed to rely, the most frequently prove falla cious.' The general indications given by Reaumur, a naturalist of the first eminence, who draws his con clusions from facts, and has fallen into few errors, are, first, the appearance of drones in a hive ; for no swarm will proceed from one where there are none; secondly, when the bees are so numerous, that part crowd about the outside of the hive, or lodge on the board in clusters of thousands : and thirdly, which iv the least equivocal sign of the day of swarming, when fewer bees than usual go abroad for collection, and return without honey or wax. Most observers also affirm, that in the evening before swarming an uncommon humming or buzzing is heard in the hive, and a distinct sound from the queen, called tolling or calling. Mr Hunter compares it to a note of piano forte; and other authors to different tones. This we rather incline to suppose is not an indica tion of swarming, but a proof that there is a young queen as yet confined in her cell, and that probably the sound proceeds from her. We shall afterwards have occasion to say a few words concerning the power of a queen in emitting sounds, and the won derful effect which these instantly produce on the whole workers.
In illustrating the concomitants of swarming, we Is *shall again resort to the observations of the naturalist Huber, one of the few investigators of the subject, whose remarks are to be received with implicit cre dit. After establishing that an old queen conducts swarms, leaving worms or nymphs in the hive, which, in their turn, transform to queens, he availed himself of a favourable season to follow their history in the perfect 'state.
A queen being introduced into a hive on the 12th of May, the bees received her well, and she immediately began laying. Twelve royal cells, all situated on the edges of the communications or pas sages through the combs, were begun on the twen tieth, and on the twenty-seventh, ten of them were much, but unequally, enlarged. On the twenty eighth, previous to which the queen had not ceased laying, her belly was very and she began to exhibit signs of agitation. Her motion soon became more lively, though she still continued examining the cells, as if about to lay : sometimes introducing her belly, but suddenly withdrawing it without having laid ; at other times depositing an egg in a different po sition from what it should naturally have. The queen
produced no audible sound in her course, nor was any thing heard different from the ordinary humming of bees. She passed over the workers in her way : at times on stopping, those meeting her also stopped, and seeming to consider her, advanced briskly; struck her with their antenna:; and mounted on her back ; and she proceeded thus carrying some of them above her. The bees no longer inclosed and formed regu lar circles around the queen, nor did they supply her with honey ; but she voluntarily took it from the cells in her way. Those which were first aroused by her motions, followed her, running in the same man ner, and in their passage excited others still tranquil on the combs. The path she had traversed was evident after she had left it, by the agitation there created, which never afterwards subsided. The queen had now visited every part of the hive, and oc casioned a general agitation : if some places yet re mained quiet, the bees in motion arrived, and im parted that which affected them. The queen dis continued depoiiting her eggs in the cells : she drop ped them at random ; and the workers ceased to watch over the young. They ran about in every different direction : even those returning from the fields before the agitation reached its height, no soon er entered the hive, than they participated in the same tumultuous impulse : they neglected to free them selves of the waxen pellets on their limbs, and ran heedlessly about. At last the whole rushed preci pitately to the outlets of the hive, and the queen along with them.
These facts were ascertained with the utmost care, and corroborated by future experiments. On the first of June, all was quiet in a hive at eleven in the fore noon ;' but at mid-day the queen, from a state of perfect tranquillity, became evidently agitated, and her agita tion was insensibly communicated to the workers in ' every part of their dwelling. In a few minutes they pre cipitately crowded to the outlets, and, along with the queen, left the hive. After they had settled on the branch of a neighbouring tree, the observer sought for the queen, thinking, if she was removed, that the bees would return to the hive : a fact which actually en - sued. Their first care then seemed to consist in seek ing their female : they were still in great agitation, which gradually subsided, and in three hours com plete tranquillity was restored.
Our limits preclude us from entering at sufficient length on this most interesting part of the natural economy of bees, and we must be content with re ferring to the works of the two celebrated authors al ready cited. The latter ascribes the chief induce ment of those bees conducted by young queens to swarm, to the agitation by which the queen is anima ted being imparted to them. He endeavours to trace the source of that agitation to the antipathy mutually entertained by the females, which, extending even to those in an imperfect state, is directed against the nymphs lodged in the cells. No sooner does a ' young queen herself attain maturity, than she at tempts to destroy her rivals : but there is a constant guard of workers preserved over them ; she is repul sed, maltreated, and driven away. If deserting one cell she approaches another, it is to experience the same resistance ; she is actuated by an unconquerable ' desire to accomplish her object ; she is harassed by the incessant opposition of the bees ; agitation thence ensues, and she resolves on flight. It is here to be observed, that ,although experiments prove that the agitation of a queen is communicated to the workers, and though, with regard to young queens, such may influence the bees to swarm, the same reasons will not apply to old queens leading forth new colonies, for what we have above described only belongs to young ones. So long as a young queen remains in a virgin 'state, she meets with little of that conspicuous respect, care, and attention, which is lavished on her'when-the bees know she is about to become a mother. She is pre viously treated with great indifference ; and hence arises the resistance she suffers when attempting to destroy the nymphs in their cells, and her consequent agitation.