“A swarm in May, worth a load of hay,
A swarm in June, worth a silver spoon,”
and the bee-keeper is pleased should his bees swarm in May, for then he will be able to put them in a new hive, and they will gather a good supply of honey before the summer is over. Should the swarm take place a month or two later, however, the bees do not settle down in time to gather sufficient honey for the winter, and they cause the bee-keeper trouble, for he has to feed them with syrup.
After a swarm, the bees seem to forget all about their old life and companions, for the hive containing the swarm may be placed quite close to the old hive without either set of bees taking the slightest notice of the other.
If a bee-keeper is not at hand to take the swarm, the bees will probably make their home in some hollow tree. They will commence to build combs, and young bees will be reared and honey stored just as in a hive.
Plate XXVIII
From a photograph by] [E. Hawks
Thousands of Bees walking into their New Home
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE OLD HIVE AFTER A SWARM
AFTER the old queen has left with the swarm, the bees have to decide what to do about a new queen, and the eldest princess is, as we have already seen, clamouring to be set free from her cell. Although she gnaws away at the floor of her cell the bees keep her a prisoner, by piling more wax on the outside of the cell. She is kept thus until the old queen has got away with the swarm, otherwise there would be a terrible fight between the rival queens.