rnard, as
to restore to animation, a frozen bee. In cool weather, they must
therefore associate in large numbers, in order to maintain the animal
heat which is necessary to their preservation; and the formation of new
colonies, after the manner of wasps and hornets, is clearly impossible.
If the young queens left the parent stock in Summer, and were able, like
the mother-wasps, to lay the foundations of a new colony, they could not
maintain the warmth requisite for the development of their young, even
if they were able, without any baskets on their thighs, to gather
bee-bread for their support. If all these difficulties were surmounted,
they would still be unable to amass any treasures for our use, or even
to lay up the stores requisite for their own preservation.

How admirably are all these difficulties obviated by the present
arrangement! Their domicile is well supplied with all the materials for
the rearing of brood, and long before any of the insects which depend
upon the heat of the sun, are able to commence breeding, the bees have
added thousands in the full vigor of youth to their already numerous
population. They are thus able to send off in season, colonies
sufficiently powerful to take advantage of the honey-harvest, and
provision the new hive against the approach of Winter. From these
considerations, it is very evident that swarming, so far from being, as
some Apiarians have considered it, a forced or unnatural event, is one,
which in a state of nature, could not possibly be dispensed with.

Let us now inquire under what circumstances it ordinarily takes place.

The time when swarms may be expected, depends of course, upon climate,
season, and the strength of the stocks. In the Northern and Middle
States, bees seldom swarm before the latter part of May; and June may be
considered as the great swarming month. The importance of having
powerful swarms early in the season, will be discussed in another place.

In the Spring, as soon as a hive well filled with comb and bees, becomes
too much crowded to accommodate its teeming population, the bees begin
the necessary preparations for emigration. A number of royal cells are
commenced about the time that the drones first make their appearance;
and by the time that the young queens arrive at maturity, the drones are
always found in the greatest abundance. The first swarm is invariably
led off by the old queen, unless she has previously died from accident
or disease