er with indifference. But she, immediately yielding to the instinct
which urges her to destroy her rivals, seeks the cells where they are
enclosed; yet no sooner does she approach than the bees bite, pull, and
drive her away, so that she is forced to remove; but the royal cells
being numerous, scarce can she find a place of rest. Incessantly
harassed with the desire of attacking the other queens, and incessantly
repelled, she becomes agitated, and hastily traverses the different
groupes of workers, to which she communicates her agitation. At this
moment numbers of bees rush towards the aperture of the hive, and, with
the young queen at their head, depart to seek another habitation.

After the departure of the colony, the remaining workers set another
queen at liberty, and treat her with equal indifference as the first.
They drive her from the royal cells; being perpetually harrassed, she
becomes agitated; departs, and carries a new swarm along with her. In a
populous hive this scene is repeated three or four times during spring.
As the number of bees is so much reduced, that they are no longer
capable of preserving a strict watch over the royal cells, several
females then leave their confinement at once; they seek each other,
fight, and the queen at last victorious reigns peaceably over the
republic.

The longest intervals we have observed between the departure of each
natural swarm have been from seven to nine days. This is the time that
usually elapses after the first colony is led out by the old queen,
until the next swarm is conducted by the first young queen set at
liberty. The interval between the second and third is still shorter; and
the fourth sometimes departs the day after the third. In hives left to
themselves, fifteen or eighteen days are usually sufficient for the
throwing of the four swarms, if the weather continues favourable, as I
shall explain.

A swarm is never seen except in a fine day, or, to speak more correctly,
at a time of the day when the sun shines, and the air is calm. Sometimes
we have observed all the precursors of swarming, disorder and agitation,
but a cloud passed before the sun, and tranquillity was restored; the
bees thought no more of swarming. An hour afterwards, the sun having
again appeared, the tumult was renewed; it rapidly augmented; and the
swarm departed.

Bees generally seem much alarmed at the prospect of bad weather. While
ranging in the fields the passage of a cloud be