in Natural History, a genus of insects, for the characters and classification of which see APIS, ENTOMOLOGY Index. The mellifica, or domestic honey bee, its history and economy, form the subject of this article.

This species is furnished with downy hairs; has a Description dusky coloured breast, and brownish belly: the tibiae of the hind legs are ciliated, and tranversely streaked on the inside. Each foot terminates in two hooks, with their points opposite to each other; in the middle of these hooks there is a little thin appendix, which, when unfolded, enables the insects to fasten themselves to glads or the most polished bodies. This part they likewise employ for transmitting the small particles of crude wax, which they find upon flowers, to the cavity in their thigh, hereafter described. The queen and drones, who never collect wax in this manner, have no such cavity. This species is also furnished with a proboscis or trunk, which serves to extract the honey from flowers; and has, besides, a real mouth situated in the fore part of the head, with which it is able to feed on the farina of flowers, from which afterwards is made wax. The belly is divided into six rings or joints; which sometimes shorten the body, by slipping the one over the other. In the inside of the belly there is a small bladder or reservoir, in which the honey is collected, after having passed through the proboscis and a narrow pipe which runs through the head and breast. This bladder, when full of honey, is about the size of a small pea. The sting, which is situated at the extremity of the belly, is a very curious weapon; and, when examined by the microscope, appears of a surprising structure. It has a horny sheath or scabbard, which includes two bearded darts. This sheath ends in a sharp point, near the extremity of which a slit opens, through which, at the time of stinging, the two bearded darts are protruded beyond the end of the sheath: one of these is a little longer than the other, and fixes its beard first: and the other instantly following, they penetrate alternately deeper and deeper, taking hold of the flesh with their beards or hooks, till the whole sting is buried in the flesh; and then a venomous juice is injected through the same sheath, from a little bag at the root of the sting. Hence the wound occasions an acute pain and swelling of the part, which sometimes continues several days. These effects are best remedied by enlarging the wound directly to give it some discharge. This poison seems to owe its mischievous efficacy to certain pungent salts. Let a bee be provoked to strike its sting against a plate of glass, and there will be a drop of the poison discharged and left upon the glass. This being placed under a double microscope, as the liquor evaporates, the salts will be seen to concrete, forming oblong, pointed, clear crystals.—Mr Derham counted on the sting of a wasp eight beards on the side of each dart, somewhat like the beards of fish-hooks; and the same number is to be counted on the darts of the bee's sting. When these beards are struck deep in the flesh, if the wounded person starts, or discomposes the bee before it can disengage them, the sting is left behind sticking in the wound: but if he have patience to stand quiet, the creature brings the hooks down close to the sides of the darts, and withdraws the weapon: in which case, the wound is always much less painful. The danger of being stung by bees may be in a great measure prevented by a quiet composed behaviour. A thousand bees will fly and buzz about a person without hurting him, if he stand perfectly still, and forbear disturbing them even when near his face; in which case he may observe them for hours together without danger; but if he molests or beats them away, he usually suffers for it. It has been lately affirmed*, that a person is in perfect safety in the midst of myriads of bees, if he but carefully keep his mouth shut, and breathe gently through the nostrils only; the human breath, it would seem, being peculiarly offensive to their delicate organs: and merely with this precaution, it is said, the very hives may be turned up, and even part of the comb cut out, while the bees are at work.

I. ECONOMY, INSTINCTS, &c. OF THE HONEY-BEE. We may consider a hive of bees as a well-peopled city, in which are commonly found from 15,000 to 18,000 inhabitants. This city is in itself a monarchy;—composed of a queen; of males which are the drones; and of working bees, which have been supposed and called neuters. The combs, which are of pure wax, serve as their magazine of stores, and for the nursing places of their young offspring. There is between the combs a space sufficient for two bees to march abreast, without embarrassing each other; and in some parts it is more spacious. There are also holes, or narrow passes, which cross the combs transversely, and are intended to shorten the way when the bees pass from one comb to another.

The Queen is easily distinguished from the other bees by the form of her body: she is longer and larger than they are, and her wings are much shorter than theirs in proportion to her body; for the wings of the other bees cover their whole body, whereas those of the queen hardly reach beyond her middle, or end at about the third ring of her belly. Her hinder parts are more taper than those of the other bees, terminating sharper. Her belly and legs are of a deep yellow, much resembling the purest gold. She is unwieldy in her flight, a reason for her seldom flying but when she leaves the parent-hive to go and settle a colony. All the bees form her retinue, and like dutiful subjects repair to the place she chooses. She is armed with a vigorous sting. Less passionate however than her subjects, the only uses her sting when long provoked, or when in contest for imperial sway. Never more than one remains in a hive, and that is the conqueror.

A hive of bees cannot subsist without a queen, as the attachment alone produces their numerous posterity; and on this account their fidelity and attachment to their sovereign subjects are admirable.

Mr Wildman, by his dexterity in the management of Mr Wild's bees, some years ago, surprised the whole kingdom. He man's feats can cause a swarm to light where he pleases, almost instantly; he can order them to settle on his head, queen, then remove them to his hand; command them to depart and settle on a window, table, &c. at pleasure. We shall subjoin his method of performing these feats in his own words:

"Long experience has taught me, that as soon as I turn up a hive, and give it some taps on the sides and bottom, the queen immediately appears, to know the cause of this alarm, but soon retires again among her people. Being accustomed to see her so often, I readily perceive her at first glance; and long practice has enabled me to seize her instantly, with a tenderness that does not in the least endanger her person. This is of the utmost importance; for the least injury done to her brings immediate destruction to the hive, if you have not a spare queen to put in her place, as I have too often experienced in my first attempts. When possessed of her, I can without injury to her, or exciting that degree of resentment that might tempt her to sting me, slip her into my other hand, and, returning the hive to its place, hold her there, till the bees missing her, are all on wing, and in the utmost confusion. When the bees are thus distressed, I place the queen wherever I would have the bees to settle. The moment a few of them discover her, they give notice to those near them, and those to the rest; the knowledge of which soon becomes so general, that in a few minutes they all collect themselves round her; and are so happy in having recovered this sole support of their state, that they will long remain quiet in their situation. Nay, the scent of her body is so attractive of them, that the slightest touch of her, along any place or substance, will attach the bees to it, and induce them to pursue any path she takes." This was the only witchcraft used by Mr Wildman, and is that alone which is practised by others who have since made similar exhibitions. In short, seize on the queen, and you are sure of leading all the bees of a hive to any place you please.

When a queen dies by an accident, the bees of her hive immediately cease working, consume their own honey, fly about their own and other hives at unusual hours when other bees are at rest, and pine away if not soon supplied with another sovereign. Her loss is proclaimed by a clear and interrupted humming. This sign should be a warning to the owner of the bees, to take what honey remains in the hive, or to procure them another queen. In this last case the flock instantly revives; pleasure and activity are apparent through the whole hive; the presence of the sovereign restores vigour and exertion, and her voice commands universal respect and obedience: of such importance is the queen to the existence and prosperity of the other members of this community.

The diffraction of the queen-bee thaws evidently that she lays many thousand eggs. It is computed that the ovaria of a queen-bee contain more than 5000 eggs at one time; and therefore it is not difficult to conceive that a queen-bee may produce 10,000 or 12,000 bees, or even more, in the space of two months.

The common DRONES are smaller than the queen, and larger than the working bees; and in flying they make a greater noise. The diffraction of the drone gives as great proof of its being the male, as that of the queen does of her being female. In this creature there is no appearance of ovaries or eggs, nor any thing of the structure of the common working bees, but the whole abdomen is filled with transparent vessels, winding about in various sinuosities, and containing a white or milky fluid. This is plainly analogous to that fluid in the males of other animals, which is destined to render the eggs of the female prolific: and this whole apparatus of vessels, which much resembles the turnings and windings of the seminal vesicles in other animals, is plainly intended only for the preparation and retention of this matter, till the defined time of its being emitted. On squeezing the hinder parts also, may be forced out the penis, a small and slender fleathy body, contained between two horns of a somewhat harder substance, which join at their base, but gradually part asunder as they are continued in length. These parts, found in all the drones, and none of them in any other bees except these, seem to prove very evidently the difference of sex. If a hive is opened in the beginning of spring, not a single drone will be found in it; from the middle of May till the end of June, hundreds of them will be found, commonly from 200 or 300 to 1000; and from thence to the following spring it would be in vain to seek for them. They go not out till 11 in the morning, and return before fix in the evening. But their expeditions are not those of industry. They have no sting, their rostrum and feet are not adapted for collecting wax and honey, nor indeed are they obliged to labour. They only hover upon flowers to extract the sweets, and all their thoughts are pleasure. Their office is, to impregnate the eggs of the queen after they are deposited in the cells. And while their presence is thus necessary, they are suffered to enjoy the sweets of love and life; but as soon as they become useless in the hive, the working bees declare the most cruel war against them, and make terrible slaughter of them. This war affects not only the bees already in life, but even the eggs and maggots; for the law which has pronounced the destruction of the males has no exception, it extends equally to those which do not yet breathe and to those which do; the hive is cleared of every egg, maggot, or nymph; the whole is torn away and carried off. After the season proper for increasing the number of bees is past, and when they should attend only to the supplying of their magazines sufficiently with winter stores, every vestige of the drones is destroyed, to make room for honey. Whenever these drones are observed to remain in a hive late in the autumn, it is held to be a bad sign of the state of the hive.

But besides these larger drones, Maraldi and Reaumur had long ago discovered that there were others, of a lesser size, not exceeding that of the common working bees. This fact, however, was not fully ascertained before the late experiments of Mr Debraw, to be afterwards mentioned. It is well known, as has been already noticed, that the large drones never appear in the hive before the middle of April; that they are all dead before the end of August, when the principal breeding season terminates; and that they are destroyed, together with all their worms or nymphs, by the working bees, probably by order of the queen, to save honey: yet it is equally certain, that the bees begin to breed early in the spring, sometimes in February, if the weather is mild; and that many broods are completed before these drones appear. But if drones of a smaller size are suffered to remain, which in a time of scarcity consume less honey than the others, these will answer the purpose of supplying the early broods, and the larger drones are produced against a time of greater plenty. Some observers affirm, that the smaller drones are all dead before the end of May, when the larger species appear and supercede their use. These circumstances accord with the suggestion of Abbé le Pluche in his Spectacle de la Nature, That a small number of drones are reserved to supply the necessities of the ensuing year; and that these drones are very little, if at all, larger than the common bees.

The WORKING BEES compose the greatest body of the work-state. Columella informs us, that the ancients distinguished several kinds of them. He joins in opinion with Virgil, who approves of those which are small, oblong, smooth, bright, and shining, of a gentle and mild disposition: "for," continues he, "by how much the larger and rounder the bee is, by so much the worse it is: but if it be fierce and cruel, it is the worst of all. The angry disposition of bees of a better character is easily softened by the frequent intercourse of those who take care of them, for they grow more tame when they are often handled." The experience of ages has now established the sort of bees which have been found to answer best the purposes of keeping them.

The working bees have the care of the hive, collect the wax and honey, fabricate and work up the wax, build the cells, feed the young, keep the hive clean, drive from thence strangers, and employ themselves in all other concerns relating to the hive.

The working bee has two stomachs; one which contains the honey, and a second in which is contained the crude wax. The working bees have no parts analogous to the ovaria of the queen, or that resemble the male organs of the drones. Hence they have generally been supposed to be neutral or of neither sex. But a different doctrine has lately been established; which there will be occasion to notice in the sequel.

The sting is very necessary for a working bee, both as an offensive and as a defensive weapon: for their honey and wax excite the envy of many greedy and lazy insects; and they have also to defend themselves against enemies who are fonder of eating them than their honey. There is likewise a time when the drones must be sacrificed and exterminated for the good of the society; and as they are larger and stronger than the working bees, these last would have a very unequal match, were it not for this poisonous sting.

There happen also among bees, either of the same or of different hives, most deadly feuds, in which their stings are their chief weapons. In these contests, great skill may be discerned in their manner of pointing the sting between the scaly rings which cover their bodies, or to some other easily vulnerable part. The bee which first gains the advantage remains the conqueror; though the victory costs the victor his life, if he has left his sting in the body of the enemy; for, with the sting, so much of his body is torn out, that death inevitably follows. Bees have very severe conflicts when whole hives engage in a pitched battle, and many are slain on both sides. Their fighting and plundering one another ought chiefly to be imputed, as Mr Thorley observes, either to their perfect abhorrence of sloth and idleness, or to their insatiable thirst for honey; for when, in spring or autumn, the weather is fair, but no honey can be collected from plants, and is to be found only in the hives of other bees, they will venture their lives to get it there.

Dr Warder assigns another cause of their fighting; which is, the necessity that the bees are reduced to when their own hive has been plundered, at a season when it is too late for them to repair the loss by any industry in the fields.

Sometimes one of the queens is killed in battle. In this case, the bees of both hives unite as soon as her death is generally known among them. All then become one people; the vanquished go off with the robbers, richly laden with their own spoils, and return every day with their new associates to pillage their old habitation. This causes a throng, unusual for the season, at the door of the hive they are plundering; and if the owner lifts it up at night, when all are gone home, he will find it empty of inhabitants; though there perhaps will remain in it some honey, which he takes as his property.

When two swarms take flight at the same time, they sometimes quarrel, and great numbers are destroyed on both sides, till one of the queens is slain. This ends the contest, and the bees of both sides unite under the surviving sovereign.

When the bees begin to work in their hives, they divide themselves into four companies; one of which roves in the fields in search of materials; another employs itself in laying out the bottom and partitions of their cells; a third is employed in making the inside smooth from the corners and angles; and the fourth company brings food for the rest, or relieves those who return with their respective burdens. But they are not kept constant to one employment; they often change the tasks assigned them: those that have been at work being permitted to go abroad, and those that have been in the fields already take their places. They seem even to have signs, by which they understand each other; for when any of them wants food, it bends down its trunk to the bee from whom it is expected, which then opens its honey-bag, and lets some drops fall into the other's mouth, which is at that time opened to receive it. Their diligence and labour are so great, that, in a day's time, they are able to make cells which lie upon each other numerous enough to contain 3000 bees.

In the plan and formation of these cells they do not use a most wonderful sagacity. In constructing habitations within a limited compass, an architect would have three objects in view: first, to use the smallest quantity that can be of materials; next, to give to the edifice the greatest capacity in a determined space; and thirdly, to employ the spot in such a manner that none of it may be lost. On examination it would be found that the bees have obtained all these advantages in the hexagonal form of their cells: for, first, there is an economy of wax, as the circumference of one cell makes part of the circumferences of those contiguous to it; secondly, the economy of the spot, as these cells which join to one another leave no void between them; and thirdly, the greatest capacity or space; as, of all the figures which can be contiguous, that with six sides gives the largest area. This thriftiness prompts them to make the partitions of their cells thin; yet they are constructed so as that the solidity may compensate for the scantiness of materials. The parts most liable to injury are the entrance of the cells. These the bees take care to strengthen, by adding quite round the circumference of the apertures a fillet of wax, by which means this mouth is three or four times thicker than the sides; and they are strengthened at the bottom by the angle formed by the bottom of three cells falling in the middle of an opposite cell. The combs lie parallel to each other; and there is left between every one of them a space which serves as a street, broad enough for two bees to pass by each other. There are holes which go quite through the combs, and serve as lanes for the bees to pass from one comb to another, without being obliged to go a great way about. When they begin their combs, they form at the top of the hive a root or stay to the whole edifice, which is to hang from it. Though they generally lay the foundations of the combs so that there shall be no more between them than what is sufficient for two bees to pass, yet they sometimes place those beginnings of two combs too far asunder; and, in this case, in order to fill up part of the void space arising from that bad disposition, they carry their combs on obliquely, to make them gradually approach each other. This void space is sometimes so considerable, that the bees build in it an intermediate comb, which they terminate as soon as the original combs have only their due distances. As the combs would be apt, when full, to overcome by their weight all the security which the bees can give them against falling, they who prepare hives set in them, crosswise, sticks, which serve as props to the combs, and save the bees a great deal of labour. It is not easy to discover the particular manner of their working; for, notwithstanding the many contrivances used for this purpose, there are such numbers in continual motion, and succeed one another with such rapidity, that nothing but confusion appears to the sight. Some of them, however, have been observed carrying pieces of wax in their talons, and running to the places where they are at work upon the combs. These they fasten to the work by means of the same talons. Each bee is employed but a very short time in this way: but there is so great a number of them that go on in a constant succession, that the comb increases very perceptibly. Besides these, there are others that run about beating the work with their wings and the hinder part of their body, probably with a view to make it more firm and solid.

Whilst part of the bees are occupied in forming the cells, others are employed in perfecting and polishing those that are new modelled. This operation is performed by their talons, taking off every thing that is rough and uneven. These polishers are not so deftly in their operations as those that make the cells; they work long and diligently, never interrupting their labour, excepting to carry out of the cell the particles of wax which they take off in polishing. These particles are not allowed to be lost; others are ready to receive them from the polishers, and to employ them in some other part of the work.

The balls which we see attached to the legs of bees returning to the hives are not wax, but a powder collected from the stamina of flowers, and yet brought to the state of wax. The substance of these balls, heated in any vessel, does not melt as wax would do, but becomes dry, and hardens: it may even be reduced to a coal. If thrown into water, it will sink; whereas wax floats. To reduce this crude substance into wax, it must first be digested in the body of the bee.

Every bee, when it leaves the hive to collect this precious store, enters into the cup of the flower, particularly such as seem charged with the greatest quantity of this yellow farina. As the animal's body is covered over with hair, it rolls itself within the flower, and quickly becomes quite covered with the dust, which it soon after brushes off with its two hind legs, and kneads into two little balls. In the thighs of the hind legs there are two cavities, edged with hair; and into these, as into a basket, the animal sticks its pellets. Thus employed, the bee flies from flower to flower, increasing its store, and adding to its stock of wax, until the ball upon each thigh becomes as big as a grain of pepper; by this time having got a sufficient load, it returns, making the best of its way to the hive.

After the bees have brought home this crude substance, they eat it by degrees; or at other times, three or four bees come and eat the loaded bee, by eating each of them a share, the loaded bee giving them a hint so to do. Hunger is not the motive of their thus eating the balls of waxy matter, especially when a swarm is first hived; but it is their desire to provide a speedy supply of real wax for making the combs. At other times, when there is no immediate want of wax, the bees lay this matter up in repositories, to keep it in store.

When this waxy matter is swallowed, it is, by the digestive powers of the bee, converted into real wax, which the bees again disgorge as they work it up into combs; for it is only while thus soft and pliant from the stomach that they can fabricate it properly. That the wax thus employed is taken from their stomachs, appears from their making a considerable quantity of comb soon after they are hived, and even on any tree or shrub where they have rested but a short while before their being hived, though no balls were visible on their legs, excepting those of a few which may be just returned from the field. This is farther confirmed by what happened in a swarm newly hived: for two days together from the time of their quitting their former home it rained constantly, insomuch that not one bee was able to stir out during that time; yet at the end of the two days they had made a comb 15 or 16 inches long, and thick in proportion.

The crude wax, when brought home by the bees, is often of as different colours as are the flowers from which it is collected: but the new combs are always of a white colour, which is afterwards changed only by the impurities arising from the steam, &c. of the bees.

Bees collect crude wax also for food; for if this was not the case, there would be no want of wax after the combs are made: but they are observed, even in old hives, to return in great numbers loaded with such matter, which is deposited in particular cells, and is known by the name of bee-bread. We may guess that they consume a great deal of this substance in food by the quantity collected; which, by computation, may in some hives amount to an hundred weight in a season, whilst the real wax in such a hive does not perhaps exceed two pounds.

It is well known that the habitation of bees ought to be very close; and what their hives want from the negligence or unskilfulness of man, these animals, supply by their own industry: so that it is their principal care, when first hived, to stop up all the crannies. For this purpose they make use of a resinous gum, which is more tenacious than wax, and differs greatly from it. This the ancients called propolis. It will grow considerably hard in the hive, though it will in some measure soften by heat; and is often found different in consistence, colour, and smell. It has generally an agreeable aromatic odour when it is warmed; and by some it is considered as a most grateful perfume. When the bees begin to work with it, it is soft; but it acquires a firmer consistence every day, till at length it assumes a brown colour, and becomes much harder than wax. The bees carry it on their hinder legs; and some think it is met with on the birch, the willow, and poplar. However it is procured, it is certain that they plaster the inside of their hives with this composition.

Honey is originally a juice digested in plants, which sweats through their pores, and chiefly in their flowers, or is contained in reservoirs in which nature stores it. The bees sometimes penetrate into these stores, and at other times find the liquor exuded. This they collect in their stomachs; so that, when loaded with it, they seem, to an inattentive eye, to come home without any booty at all.

Besides the liquor already mentioned, which is obtained from the flowers of plants, another substance, called honey-dew*, has been discovered, of which the

* See the article Honey-dew, bees bees are equally fond. Of this substance there are two kinds, both deriving their origin from vegetables, though in very different ways.

The first kind, the only one known to husbandmen, and which passes for a dew that falls on trees, is no other than a mild sweet juice, which, having circulated through the vessels of vegetables, is separated in proper reservoirs in the flowers, or on the leaves, where it is properly called the honey-dew: sometimes it is deposited in the pith, as in the sugar-cane; and, at other times, in the juice of pulpy summer fruit when ripe. Such is the origin of the manna which is collected on the ash and maple of Calabria and Briancon, where it flows in great plenty from the leaves and trunks of these trees, and thickens into the form in which it is usually seen.

The second kind of honey-dew, which is the chief resource of bees after the spring-flowers and dew by transpiration on the leaves are past, owes its origin to a small mean insect*, the excrement thrown out by which makes a part of the most delicate honey we ever taste.

From whatever source the bees have collected their honey, the instant they return home, they seek cells in which they may disgorge and deposit their loads. They have two sorts of stores: one which consists of honey laid up for the winter; and the other of honey intended for accidental use in case of bad weather, and for such bees as do not go abroad in search of it. Their method of securing each of these is different. They have in each cell a thicker substance, which is placed over the honey, to prevent its running out of the cell; and that substance is raised gradually as the cell is filled, till the bees, finding that the cell cannot contain any more, close it with a covering of wax, not to be opened till times of want, or during the winter.

It has been already observed, that the cells are inner in which tended for other purposes besides being places of store they breed for honey. One of their chief uses is, their being nurseries for the young. The cells for those which are to be working bees are commonly half an inch deep; those for drones, three quarters of an inch; and those which are intended for keeping of honey only, still deeper. This accounts for the inequalities observed in the surface of combs.

The queen-bee is generally concealed in the most secret part of the hive, and is never visible but when she lays her eggs in such combs as are exposed to sight. When she does appear, she is always attended by ten or a dozen of the common sort, who form a kind of retinue, and follow her wherever she goes with a sedate and grave tread. Before she lays her eggs, she examines the cells where she designs to lay them; and, if she finds that they contain neither honey, wax, nor any embryo, she introduces the posterior part of her body into the cell, and fixes to the bottom of it a small white egg, which is composed of a thin white membrane, full of a whitish liquor. In this manner she goes on, till she fills as many cells as she has eggs to lay, which are generally many thousands. Sometimes more than one egg has been deposited in the same cell; when this is the case, the working bees remove the supernumerary eggs, and leave only one in each cell. On the first or second day after the egg is lodged in the cell, the drone bee injects a small quantity of whitish liquid, which, in about a day, is absorbed by the egg. On the third or fourth day is produced a worm or maggot; which, when it is grown so as to touch the opposite angle, coils itself up in the shape of a femicircle, and floats in a proper liquid, whereby it is nourished and enlarged in its dimensions. This liquor is of a whitish colour, of the thickness of cream, and of an infipid taste like flour and water. Naturalists are not agreed as to the origin and qualities of this liquid. Some have supposed, that it consists of some generative matter, injected by the working bees into each cell, in order to give fecundity to the eggs: but the most probable opinion is, that it is the fame with what some writers have called the bee-bread; and that it is a mixture of water with the juices of plants and flowers collected merely for the nutrition of the young, whilst they are in their weak and helpless state. Whatever be the nature of this aliment, it is certain that the common working bees are very industrious in supplying the worms with a sufficient quantity of it. The worm is fed by the working bees for about eight days, till one end touches the other in the form of a ring; and when it begins to feel itself uneasy in its first posture, it ceases to eat, and begins to unroll itself, thrusting that end forward towards the mouth of the cell which is to be the head. The attendant bees, observing these symptoms of approaching transformation, desist from their labours in carrying proper food, and employ themselves in fattening up the top of the cell with a lid of wax, formed in concentric circles, and by their natural heat in cherishing the brood and hastening the birth. In this concealed state the worm extends itself at full length, and prepares a web of a sort of silk in the manner of the silk-worm. This web forms a complete lining for the cell, and affords a convenient receptacle for the transformation of the worm into a nymph or chrysalis. Some naturalists suppose, that as each cell is defined to the successive breeding of several worms, the whole web, which is composed of many cruts or doubles, is in reality a collection of as many webs as there have been worms. M. Maraldi apprehends, that this lining is formed of the skin of the worms thrown off at its entrance into the nymph state: but it is urged, that if the cells are opened when newly covered by the bees, the worm within will be found in its own form, and detected in the act of spinning its web; and by means of glaases it will be found composed of fine threads regularly woven together, like those of other spinning animals. In the space of 18 or 20 days the whole process of transformation is finished, and the bee endeavours to discharge itself from confinement by forcing an aperture with its teeth through the covering of the cell. The passage is gradually dilated; so that one horn first appears, then the head, and afterwards the whole body. This is usually the work of three hours, and sometimes of half a day. The bee, after it has disengaged itself, stands on the surface of the comb, till it has acquired its natural complexion, and full maturity and strength, so as to become fit for labour. The rest of the bees gather round it in this state, congratulate its birth, and offer it honey out of their own mouths. The exuviae and scattered pieces of wax which are left in the cell are removed by the working bees; and the matrix is no sooner cleansed and fit for new fecundation, but the queen deposits another egg in it; insomuch that, M. Maraldi Maraldi says, he has seen five bees produced in the same cell in the space of three months. The young bees are easily distinguished from the others by their colour; they are gray, instead of the yellowish brown of the common bees. The reason of this is, that their body is black, and the hairs that grow upon it are white, from the mixture of which seen together results a gray; but this colour forms itself into a brownish yellow by degrees, the rings of the body becoming more brown and the hairs more yellow.

The eggs from which drones are to proceed, are, as already observed, laid in larger cells than those of the working bees. The coverings of these cells, when the drones are in the nymph state, are convex or swelling outward, whilst the cells of the working bees are flat. This, with the privilege of leading idle effeminate lives, and not working for the public stock, is what distinguishes the drones.

The bees depart from their usual style of building when they are to raise cells for bringing up such maggots as are destined to become queens. These are of a long oblong form, having one end bigger than the other, with their exterior surface full of little cavities. Wax, which is employed with so geometrical a thriftiness in the raising of hexagonal cells, is expended with profusion in the cell which is to be the cradle of a royal maggot. They sometimes fix it in the middle, and at other times on one side of a comb. Several common cells are sacrificed to serve as a basis and support to it. It is placed almost perpendicular to the common cells, the largest end being uppermost. The lower end is open till the season for closing it comes, or till the maggot is ready for transformation. It would be difficult to conceive how a tender maggot can remain in a cell turned bottom upmost, if we did not find it buried in a substance scarcely fluid, and if it were not in itself, at first, small and light enough to be suspended in this clammy paste. As it grows it fills all the upper and larger part of the cell. As soon as the young queen comes out of her cell, that cell is destroyed, and its place is supplied by common cells; but as the foundation of the royal castle is left, this part of the comb is found thicker than any other. There are several such cells prepared; for if there was only one reared in each hive, the swarms might often want a conductor. Many accidents may also destroy the little maggot before it becomes a bee. It is therefore necessary that a number of such cells should be provided; and accordingly there are observed several young queens in the beginning of the summer, more than one of which often takes flight when a swarm departs.

A young queen is in a condition, to lead a swarm, from a hive in which she was born in four or five days after she has appeared in it with wings. The bees of a swarm are in a great hurry when they know that their queen is ready to lay. In this case, they give to their new cells but part of the depth they are to have, and defer the finishing of them till they have traced the number of cells requisite for the present time. The cells first made are intended only for working bees; these being the most necessary.

When the hive is become too much crowded by the addition of the young brood, a part of the bees think of finding themselves a more commodious habitation, and with that view single out the most forward of the young queens. A new swarm is therefore constantly composed of one queen at least, and of several thousand working bees, as well as of some hundreds of drones. The working bees are some old, some young.

Scarce has the colony arrived at its new habitation, when the working bees labour with the utmost diligence to procure materials for food and building. Their principal aim is not only to have cells in which they may deposit their honey; a stronger motive seems to animate them. They seem to know that their queen is in haste to lay her eggs. Their industry is such, that in 24 hours they will have made combs 20 inches long, and wide in proportion. They make more wax during the first fortnight, if the season is favourable, than they do during all the rest of the year. Other bees are at the same time busy in stopping all the holes and crevices they find in their new hive, in order to guard against the entrance of insects which covet their honey, their wax, or themselves; and, also to exclude the cold air, for it is indispensably necessary that they be lodged warm.

When the bees first settle in swarming, indeed when they at any time rest themselves, there is something very particular in their method of taking their repose. It is done by collecting themselves in a heap, and hanging to each other by their feet. They sometimes extend these heaps to a considerable length. It would seem probable to us, that the bees from which the others hang must have a considerable weight suspended to them. All that can be said is, that the bees must find this to be a situation agreeable to themselves. They may perhaps have a method of diffusing themselves with air, thereby to lessen their specific gravity; in the same manner as fishes do in order to alter their gravity compared with water.

When a swarm divides into two or more bands, which settle separately, this division is a sure sign that there are two or more queens among them. One of these clusters is generally larger than the other. The bees of the smaller cluster or clusters, detach themselves by little and little, till at last the whole, together with the queen or queens, unite with the largest cluster.

As soon as the bees are settled, the supernumerary queen or queens must be sacrificed to the peace and tranquillity of the hive. This execution generally raises a considerable commotion in the hive; and several other bees, as well as the queen or queens, lose their lives. Their bodies may be observed on the ground, near the hive. The queen that is chosen is of a more reddish colour than those which are destroyed; so that fruitfulness seems to be a great motive of preference in bees; for the nearer they are to the time of laying their eggs, the bigger, larger, and more shining are their bodies. The method of hiving these swarms will be explained hereafter.

Besides the capital insects above mentioned, bees are possessed of others, some of which are equally necessary for their preservation and happiness.—They anxiously provide against the entrance of insects into the hive, by gluing up with wax the smallest holes in the skep. Some stand as sentinels at the mouth of the hive, to prevent insects of any kind from getting in. But if a snail, or other large insect should get in, notwithstanding all resistance, they sling it to death; and even cover it over with a coat of propolis, to pre- vent the bad smell or maggots which might proceed from the putrefaction of such a large animal. Bees seem to be warned of the appearance of bad weather by some particular feeling. It sometimes happens, even when they are very affusive and busy, that they on a sudden cease from their work; not a single one stirs out; and those that are abroad hurry home in such prodigious crowds, that the doors of their habitations are too small to admit them. On this occasion look up to the sky, and you will soon discover some of those black clouds which denote impending rain. Whether they see the clouds gathering for it, as some imagine, or whether (as is much more probable) they feel some other effects of it upon their bodies, is not yet determined; but it is alleged, that no bee is ever caught even in what we call a sudden shower, unless it have been at a very great distance from the hive, or have been before injured by some accident, or be sickly and unable to fly so fast as the rest. Cold is a great enemy to them. To defend themselves against its effects during a hard winter, they crowd together in the middle of the hive, and buzz about, and thereby excite a warmth which is often perceptible by laying the hand upon the glass windows of the hive. They seem to understand one another by the motions of their wings: when the queen wants to quit the hive, she gives a little buzz; and all the others immediately follow her example, and retire along with her.

As to the age of bees, the large drones live but a little while, being destroyed without mercy by the working bees, probably to save honey, as already noticed. But of the other sort lately discovered, no larger than the working bees, and not easily to be distinguished from them, the age has not yet been ascertained. Writers are not agreed as to the age of the working bees. Some maintain that they are annual, and others suppose that they live many years. Many of them, it is well known, die annually of hard labour; and though they may be preserved by succession in hives or colonies for several years, the most accurate observers are of opinion that their age is but a year, or at the longest no more than two summers.

Concerning the sex and fecundation of bees, various experiments have been made of late years, by which new light has been thrown upon the subject, and several difficulties which embarrassed the process of generation among these curious insects seem to have been removed.

Swammerdam, and after him Maraldi, discovered in the structure of the drones some resemblance to the male organs of generation, as has already been described, and from thence concluded that they were the males: but neither of those accurate and industrious observers could detect them in the act of copulation. Swammerdam, therefore, entertained a notion, that the female or queen-bee was fecundated without copulation; that it was sufficient for her to be near the males; and that her eggs were impregnated by a kind of vivifying aura, exhaled from the body of the males, and absorbed by the female. However, M. Reaumur thought that he had discovered the actual copulation of the drones with the female-bee, and he has very minutely described the process of it. A very ingenious naturalist* of the present day, without taking any notice of recent discoveries, seems to have given into the same idea.

"The office of the males or drones (says he) is to render the queen pregnant. One single female should in the midst of seven or eight hundred males, one would think, be incessantly assailed. But nature has provided against that inconvenience, by making them of a constitution extremely frigid. The female chooses out one that pleases her; she is obliged to make the first advances, and excite him to love by her caresses. But this favour proves fatal to him: scarce has he ceased from amorous dalliance, but he is seen to perish. The pleasure of these observations may be taken, by putting a female with several males into a bottle."

Others again, as M. Shirach and M. Hattorf, reject the drones as bearing no share at all in the business of propagation, and assert the queen-bee to be self-prolific. But for what purpose then should wise nature have furnished the drones with that large quantity of seminal liquor? to what use so large an apparatus of fecundating organs so well described by Reaumur and Maraldi? The fact is, that the above gentlemen have founded their opinion upon observations that hives are peopled at a time of the year when (as they suppose) there are no drones in being. But we have already noticed, that nature has provided drones of different sizes for the purpose of impregnation, adapted to different times, occasions, and circumstances: And the mistake of Messrs Shirach and Hattorf seems to have proceeded from their missing the large-sized drones, and not being acquainted with or not adverting to the other sort, so hardly distinguishable from the working bees.

Lastly, many of the ancients as well as moderns have supposed that the eggs of the female bee are not impregnated with the male sperm, while in the body of the creature, but that they are deposited unimpregnated in the cells; and that the male afterwards ejects the male sperm on them as they lie in the cells, in the same manner as the generation of fishes is supposed to be performed by the males impregnating the spawn after it is cast out by the females. M. Maraldi† long since conjectured that this might be the case; and he was confirmed Sc. 1712, in his opinion, by observing a liquid whitish substance surrounding each egg at the bottom of the cell a little while after it had been laid, and that a great number of eggs, which are not encompassed by this liquor, remained barren in the cell.

This method of impregnation has been lately established beyond all contradiction by the observations of Mr Debraw of Cambridge‡. Having put some bees ‡ Phil. into glass-hives with a large number of drones, he observed on the first or second day (always before the vol. lxvii. third) from the time in which the eggs were placed part i. art. 3. in the cells, which the queen generally lays on the fourth or fifth day after they are put into the hive, that a great number of bees fastened themselves to one another, and formed a kind of curtain from the top to the bottom of the hive, probably in order to conceal the process of generation. Mr Debraw, however, Mr De could soon perceive several bees, whose size he was not braw's* able to distinguish, inferring the posterior part of their perimenter bodies each into a cell, and sinking into it; after a variety little while they retired, and he could see with the naked eye a small quantity of whitish liquor left in the angle of the base of each cell containing an egg; this liquor liquor was less liquid than honey, and had no sweet taste.

In order to prove farther that the eggs are fecundated by the males, and that their presence is necessary at the time of breeding, Mr Debraw made the following experiments. They consist in leaving in a hive the queen, with only the common or working bees, without any drones, to see whether the eggs the laid would be prolific. To this end, he took a swarm, and shook all the bees into a tub of water, leaving them there till they were quite senseless; by which means he could distinguish the drones without any danger of being stung: Leaving these out, therefore, he restored the queen and working-bees to their former state, by spreading them on a brown paper in the sun; after this he replaced them in a glass-hive, where they soon began to work as usual. The queen laid eggs, which, to his great surprise, were impregnated; for he imagined he had separated all the drones or males, and therefore omitted watching them; at the end of twenty days he found several of his eggs had, in the usual course of changes, produced bees, while some had withered away, and others were covered with honey. Hence he inferred, that some of the males had escaped his notice, and impregnated part of the eggs. To convince himself of this, he took away all the brood comb that was in the hive, in order to oblige the bees to provide a fresh quantity, being determined to watch narrowly their motions after new eggs should be laid in the cells. On the second day after the eggs were placed in the cells, he perceived the same operation that was mentioned before; namely, that of the bees hanging down in the form of a curtain, while others thrust the posterior part of their body into the cells. He then introduced his hand into the hive, and broke off a piece of the comb, in which there were two of these insects: he found in neither of them any sting (a circumstance peculiar to the drones); upon dissection, with the assistance of a microscope, he discovered the four cylindrical bodies which contain the glutinous liquor, of a whitish colour, as observed by Maraldi in the large drones. He was therefore now under a necessity of repeating his experiments, in destroying the males, and even those which might be suspected to be such.

He once more immersed the same bees in water; and when they appeared in a senseless state, he gently pressed every one, in order to distinguish those armed with stings from those which had none, and which of course he supposed to be males: of those last he found fifty-seven, and replaced the same in a glass-hive, where they immediately applied again to the work of making cells; and on the fourth or fifth day, very early in the morning, he had the pleasure to see the queen-bee deposit her eggs in those cells; he continued watching most part of the ensuing days, but could discover nothing of what he had seen before.

The eggs after the fourth day, instead of changing in the manner of caterpillars, were found in the same state they were the first day, except that some were covered with honey. A singular event happened the next day about noon: all the bees left their own hive, and attempted to get into a neighbouring hive, probably in search of males; but the queen was found dead, having been killed in the engagement.

To be further satisfied, Mr Debraw took the brood-comb, which had not been impregnated, and divided it into two parts: one he placed under a glass bell, No. 1, with honey-comb for the bees food, taking care to leave a queen, but no drones, among the bees confined in it: the other piece of brood-comb he placed under another glass bell, No. 2, with a few drones, a queen, and a proportionable number of common bees. The result was, that in the glass, No. 1, there was no impregnation, the eggs remained in the same state they were in when put into the glass; and on giving the bees their liberty on the seventh day, they all flew away, as was found to be the case in the former experiment; whereas in the glass, No. 2, the very day after the bees had been put into it, the eggs were impregnated by the drones, the bees did not leave their hive on receiving their liberty, the eggs at the usual time underwent the necessary transformations, and a numerous young colony was produced.

Naturalists have observed, that the queen bees are produced in a manner peculiar to themselves, and different from the drones and working bees. Some have supposed, that the eggs laid by the queen in a hive, and destined for the production of queen bees, are of a peculiar kind; but though this is not the case, as M. Shirach has lately discovered, yet there are particular cells appropriated for this purpose. These cells are generally near the edges, and at the bottom of the combs, and sometimes on the sides of a honey-comb: they are of an oblong circular form, and very strong; and are more or less numerous in different hives as occasion seems to require. It has also been supposed, that the matter with which they are nourished is of a different kind and quality from that employed for the nourishment of the other bees; that which has been collected out of the royal cells being of a gummy glutinous nature, of a deep transparent red, and dissolving in the fire rather than crumbling to powder.

It has been generally supposed, that the queen bee is the only female contained in the hive; and that the working bees are neutral, or of neither sex. But M. Shirach* has lately established a different doctrine, which has been also confirmed by the later observations of Mr Debraw†. According to M. Shirach, all the working or common bees are females in disguise; and the queen-bee lays only two kinds of eggs, viz. those which are to produce the drones, and those from which the working bees are to proceed: and from any one or more of these, one or more queens may be produced; so that every worm of the latter or common kind, which has been hatched about three days, is capable, under certain circumstances, of becoming the queen or mother of a hive. In proof of this doctrine, new and singular as it may seem, he alleges a number of satisfactory and decisive experiments, which have been since verified by those of Mr Debraw. In the early months of the spring, and in any preceding month, even folate as November, he cut off from an old hive a piece of that part of the comb which contains the eggs of the working bees; taking care, however, that it contained likewise worms which had been hatched about three days. He fixed this in an empty hive, or box, together with a portion of honey-comb, &c., or, in other words, with a sufficiency of food and building materials, or wax, for the use of the intended colony.

* Hrb. Nat de la Reine des Abeilles, vol. xvii. p. 21. † Phil. Trans. part i. M. Schirach's discoveries. lony. He then put into, and confined within the same box, a sufficient number of common working bees, taken from the same or any other hive. As soon as the members of this small community found themselves deprived of their liberty, and without a queen, a dreadful uproar ensued, which continued generally, with some short intervals of silence, for the space of about twenty-four hours; during which time it is to be supposed they were alternately meditating and holding council on the future support of the new republic. On the final cessation of this tumult, the general and almost constant result was, that they betook themselves to work; first proceeding to the construction of a royal cell, and then taking the proper measures for hatching and feeding the brood enclosed within them. Sometimes even on the second day the foundations of one or more royal cells were to be perceived; the view of which furnished certain indications that they had elected one of the enclosed worms to the sovereignty.

The operation has been hitherto conducted in the house. This new colony may now be safely trusted in the garden, if the weather be warm, and have the liberty allowed them of passing out of the box; of which they instantly avail themselves, and are seen in a short time almost totally to desert their new habitation. In about two hours, however, they begin to re-enter it. We should not neglect to observe, that if they should be placed near the old hive, from which they were taken, they will very often attempt to enter it, but are as constantly repelled by their former companions and brethren. It is prudent, therefore, to place them at a distance from the mother state, in order to avoid the inconveniences of a civil war. The final result of the experiment is, that the colony of working bees thus shut up, with a morsel of common brood, not only hatch it, but are found, at the end of eighteen or twenty days, to have produced from thence one or two queens; which have apparently proceeded from worms of the common sort, pitched upon by them for that purpose; and which, under other circumstances, that is, if they had remained in the old hive, there is reason to suppose would have been changed into common working bees. In the present instance, the common worm appears to be converted by them into a queen-bee, merely because the hive was in want of one. Hence we may justly infer, that the kingdom of the bees is not, if the expression may be used, a jure divino or hereditary monarchy, but an elective kingdom; in which the choice of their future ruler is made by the body of the people, while she is yet in the cradle, or in embryo; and who are determined by motives of preference which will perhaps for ever elude the penetration of the most sagacious naturalists.

The conclusions drawn by M. Shirach, from experiments of the preceding kind, often repeated by himself and others with the same success, are, that all the common or working bees were originally of the female sex; but that when they have undergone their last metamorphosis, they are condemned to a state of perpetual virginity, and the organs of generation are obliterated; merely because they have not been lodged, fed, and brought up in a particular manner, while they were in the worm state. He supposes that the worm, designed by the community to be a queen, or mother, owes its metamorphosis into a queen, partly to the extraordinary size of its cell, and its peculiar position in it; but principally to a certain appropriate nourishment found there, and carefully administered to it by the working bees while it was in the worm state; by which, and possibly other means unknown, the development and extension of the germ of the female organs, previously existing in the embryo, is effected; and those differences in its form and size are produced, which afterwards so remarkably distinguish it from the common working bees.

This discovery is capable of being applied towards forming artificial swarms, or new colonies of bees, by which means their number might be increased, and their produce in honey and wax proportionably augmented.

Explanation of Plate LXXXIX. Fig. 1. is the queen bee. 2. Is the drone. 3. Is the working bee. 4. Represents the bees hanging to each other by the feet, which is the method of taking their repose. 5. The proboscis or trunk, which is one of the principal organs of the bees, wherewith they gather the honey and take their nourishment. 6. One of the hind legs of a working bee, loaded with wax. 7. A comb, in which the working bees are bred. The cells are the smallest of any. Two of them have the young bees enclosed. A royal cell is suspended on one side. 8. A comb in which the drones are bred, being larger than the former; the young drones being included in several of them; with two royal cells suspended on the side. 9. A similar comb, in which the royal cell is fixed in the middle of the comb; and several common cells are sacrificed to serve as a basis and support to it. In general, the royal cells are suspended on the side of a comb, as in fig. 7, and 8. To the side of fig. 9, two royal cells are begun, when they resemble pretty much the cup in which an acorn lies. The other royal cells have the young queens included in them. Fig. 10. exhibits the sting and all its parts. The sting is composed of a sheath or case, and two shanks, united to each other, and terminating in a sharp point, so as to look like a single part. b, The poisonous bag; c, The tube that serves to convey the poison from its bag to the thickest part of the sting's sheath. d d, The two shanks of the sting, mutually conveying to each other. e e, The sheath of the sting. f f, The thickest end of the sheath, where the tube opens into it, by which it receives the insect's poison. g, The extreme point of the sting, formed by the two shanks of that organ, that are in this place closely united. h h, The beards with which the shanks of the sting are armed at their extremities. i, The tube that serves to secrete the poison, which it discharges into the poison-bag. k k, The two blind extremities of the said tube. l l l l, Two pair of cartilages, of different forms, which are for the most part of a deep black, and articulated among themselves, and with the shanks of the sting. m m, Two other cartilages less conspicuous than the former, with one pair of which they are articulated. The two cartilages m m, are almost entirely of a membranaceous substance. n n n n n n n n, Eight places in which the foregoing cartilages are articulated among themselves, and with the shanks of the sting d d. o o o o, Four muscles serving to move the sting different ways, by the assistance of the same cartilages. p p, Two muscles which draw the shanks of the sting into its sheath. sheath. q q, Two appendages of the sting which are moved along with it, and seem to answer no other purpose but that of ornament.—Fig. 11. The ovary.—Fig. 12. Six eggs drawn after nature, and placed on their ends: These eggs are oblong, very slender, but somewhat thicker on their upper parts.—Fig. 13. An egg viewed with a microscope: it resembles the skin of a fish, divested of its scales, but still retaining the marks of their insertion.—Fig. 14. Worms of bees, of different sizes, drawn after nature. a, A worm newly hatched. b c d e, Four worms that have received more nourishment, and are more grown. f g, Two worms still bigger than the former, having had more time to make use of the nourishment provided for them. They are here represented as they lie doubled in their cells. h, A worm placed on its belly so as to show on its back a black line, inclining to a light blue or gray. This line denotes the stomach, which appears in this place through the transparent parts that lie over it. i, A worm lying on its back, and beginning to draw in the hinder part of its body, and move its head.—Fig. 15. A full-grown worm, viewed with a microscope. a a, Its 14 annular incisions or divisions. h, The head and eyes, &c. c c c, Ten breathing-holes.—Fig. 16. The worm forming its web. a a, The sides of the cell that contain it. b, The bottom of the cell. c, The entrance or door of the cell. The worm is here represented as making its web in the properest manner to shut up this entrance.—Fig. 17. Worm taken out of the web in which it had enclosed itself, and just ready to cast its skin.—Fig. 18. A cell containing the worm changed into a nymph, and perfectly lined with the said worm's web. Likewise the said web entire, with the nymph contained in it, as they appear on opening the cell. a a, The sides of the cell, lined with the worm's web. b, The mouth of the cell, perfectly closed by the web. c, The bottom of the cell. d, The web entire, as it appears on opening the cell, which it greatly resembles in form. e, The upper part of the web, of a convex form. This part shows its filaments pretty distinctly. f, The enclosed nymph appearing through the transparent sides of the web. g, The bottom of the web, answering to that of the wax cell.—Fig. 19. Worm changed to a nymph, of its natural size and form, yet so as to exhibit its limbs, which are folded up in a most wonderful manner.—Fig. 20. The nymph of the bee viewed with the microscope, displaying in a distinct manner all the parts of the enclosed insect, and the beautiful manner in which they are laid up. a, The head, bloated with humours. b b, The eyes, projecting considerably. c c, The horns, or antennae. d, The lip. e e, The teeth, or jaw-bones. f f, The first pair of joints belonging to the proboscis. h, The proboscis itself. i i, The first pair of legs. k k, Two transparent stiff little parts, lying against the lowest joints of the first pair of legs. These little parts are not to be found, as they remain in the skin it sheds on quitting the nymph state. l l, The second pair of legs. m m, The wings. n n, The blade-bones. o o, The last pair of legs. p p, The abdominal rings. q (q) The hinder part of the body. The sting projects a little in this place. r, Two little parts accompanying the sting. s, The anus.—Fig. 21. a, A cell full of bees bread, placed in layers. b, Little grains, of which the said substance, viewed with the microscope, appears to consist.

II. Of the MANAGEMENT of BEES, and most approved Inventions for saving their Lives while we take their Honey and Wax.

1. Of the Apiary, and Hives. Columella directs that the apiary face the south, and be situated in a dry place neither too hot nor too much exposed to the cold; that it be in a valley, in order that the loaded bees may with the greater ease defend their homes; that it be near the manion-houfe, on account of the convenience of watching them; but so situated as not to be exposed to noisome smells, or to the din of men or cattle: that it be surrounded with a wall, which however should not rise above three feet high: that, if possible a running stream be near them; or, if that cannot be, that water be brought near them in troughs, with pebbles or small stones in the water, for the bees to rest on while they drink; or that the water be confined within gently declining banks, in order that the bees may have safe access to it; they not being able to produce either combs, honey, or food for their maggots, without water; that the neighbourhood of rivers or basins of water with high banks be avoided, because winds may whirl the bees into them, and they cannot easily get on shore from thence to dry themselves; and that the garden in which the apiary stands be well furnished with such plants as afford the bees plenty of good pasture. The trees in this garden should be of the dwarf kind, and their heads bushy, in order that the swarms which settle on them may be the more easily hived.

The proprietor should be particularly attentive that the bees have also in their neighbourhood such plants as yield them plenty of food. Columella enumerates many of these fitted to a warm climate: among them he mentions thyme, the oak, the pine, the sweet-smelling cedar, and all fruit-trees. Experience has taught us, that furze, broom, mustard, clover, heath, &c. are excellent for this purpose. Pliny recommends broom, in particular, as a plant exceedingly grateful and very profitable to bees.

With regard to hives, those made of straw are generally preferred, on several accounts; they are not liable to be over-heated by the rays of the sun; they keep out cold better than wood or any other materials; and the cheapness renders the purchase of them easy. As the ingenious Mr Wildman's hives are reckoned to be of a preferable construction to any other, we shall give an account of them in his own words.

"My hives (says he) are seven inches in height and ten in width. The sides are upright, so that the top and bottom are of the same diameter. A hive holds nearly a peck. In the upper row of straw there is a hoop of about half an inch in breadth; to which are nailed five bars of deal, full a quarter of an inch in thickness, and an inch and quarter wide, and half an inch apart from one another; a narrow short bar is nailed at each side, half an inch distant from the bars next them, in order to fill up the remaining parts of the circle; so that there are in all seven bars of deal, to which the bees fix their combs. The space of half an inch between the bars allows a sufficient and easy passage for the bees from one comb to another. In order to give great steadiness to the combs, so that, upon moving the hive, the combs may not fall off, or incline out of their direction, a stick should be run through the middle of the hive, in a direction directly across the bars or at right angles with them. When the hives are made, a piece of wood should be worked into the lower row of straw, long enough to allow a door for the bees, of four inches in length, and half an inch in height.

"The proprietor of the bees should provide himself with several flat covers of straw, worked of the same thickness as the hives, and a foot in diameter, that so it may be of the same width as the outside of the hives. Before the cover is applied to the hive, a piece of clean paper, of the size of the top of the hive, should be laid over it; and a coat of cow-dung, which is the least apt to crack or any cement easily to be obtained, should be laid all round the circumference of the hive. Let the cover be laid upon this, and made fast to the hive with a packing-needle and pack-thread, so that neither cold nor vermin may enter.

"Each hive should stand single on a piece of deal, or other wood, somewhat larger than the bottom of the hive: That part of the stand which is at the mouth of the hive should project some inches, for the bees to rest on when they return from the field. This stand should be supported upon a single post, two and a half feet high; to which it should be screwed very securely, that high winds, or other accidents, may not blow down both stand and hive. A quantity of foot mixed with barley chaff should be strewed on the ground round the post; which will effectually prevent ants, flugs, and other vermin, from rising up to the hive. The foot and chaff should from time to time be renewed as it is blown or washed away; though, as it is sheltered by the stand, it remains a considerable time, especially if care be taken that no weeds rise through it. Weeds, indeed, should not be permitted to rise near the hive; for they may give shelter to vermin which may be hurtful to the bees.

"The stands for bees should be four yards a-funder; or if the apiary will not admit of so much, as far a-funder as may be, that the bees of one hive may not interfere with those of another hive, as is sometimes the case when the hives are near one another or on the same stand; for the bees, mistaking their own hives, light sometimes at the wrong door, and a fray ensues, in which one or more may lose their lives.

"The person who intends to erect an apiary should purchase a proper number of hives at the latter part of the year, when they are cheapest. The hives should be full of combs, and well stored with bees. The purchaser should examine the combs, in order to know the age of the hives. The combs of that season are white, those of the former year are of a darkish yellow; and where the combs are black, the hive should be rejected, because old hives are most liable to vermin and other accidents.

"If the number of hives wanted were not purchased in the autumn, it will be necessary to remedy this neglect after the severity of the cold is past in the spring. At this season, bees which are in good condition will get into the fields early in the morning, return loaded, enter boldly; and do not come out of the hive in bad weather; for when they do, this indicates they are in great want of provisions. They are alert on the least disturbance, and by the loudness of their humming we judge of their strength. They preserve their hives free from all filth, and are ready to defend it against every enemy that approaches.

"The summer is an improper time for buying bees, because the heat of the weather softens the wax, and thereby renders the combs liable to break, if they are not very well secured. The honey, too, being then thinner than at other times, is more apt to run out of the cells; which is attended with a double disadvantage, namely, the loss of the honey, and the daubing of the bees, whereby many of them may be destroyed. A first and strong swarm may indeed be purchased; and, if leave can be obtained, permitted to stand in the same garden till the autumn; but if leave is not obtained, it may be carried away in the night after it has been hived.

"I suppose, that, in the stocks purchased, the bees are in hives of the old construction. The only direction here necessary is, that the first swarm from these stocks should be put into one of my hives; and that another of my hives should in a few days be put under the old stock, in order to prevent its swarming again."

3. Of Hiving. Bees, as has been already observed, Of hiving never swarm till the hive be too much crowded by the the swarms young brood. They first begin to swarm in May, or in the end of April, but earlier or later according to the warmth of the season. They seldom swarm before ten in the morning, and seldom later than three in the afternoon. We may know when they are about to swarm, by clusters of them hanging on the outside of the hive, and by the drones appearing abroad more than usual: But the most certain sign is, when the bees refrain from flying into the fields, though the season be inviting. Just before they take flight, there is an uncommon silence in the hive; after this, as soon as one takes flight, they all follow. Before the subsequent swarmsg, there is a great noise in the hive, which is supposed to be occasioned by a contest whether the young or the old queen should go out. When the bees of a swarm fly too high, they are made to descend lower, by throwing handfuls of sand or dust among them, which they probably mistake for rain. For the same purpose, it is usual to beat on a kettle or frying-pan: This practice may have taken its rise from observing that thunder or any great noise prompts such bees as are in the fields to return home.

As soon as the swarm is settled, the bees which compose it should be got into a hive with all convenient speed, to prevent their taking wing again. If they settle on a small branch of a tree, easy to come at, it may be cut off and laid upon a cloth; the hive being ready immediately to put over them. If the branch cannot be conveniently cut, the bees may be swept from off it into a hive. Lodge but the queen into the hive, and the rest will soon follow. If the bees must be considerably disturbed in order to get them into a hive, the most advisable way is to let them remain in the place where they have pitched till the evening, when there is less danger of their taking wing. If it be observed that they still hover about the place they first alighted upon, the branches there may be rubbed with rue, or alder-leaves, or any other thing distasteful to them, to prevent their returning to it.

The hive employed on this occasion should be cleaned with the utmost care, and its inside be rubbed very hard with a coarse cloth, to get off the loose straws, or other impurities, which might cost them a great deal of time and labour to gnaw away. It may then be rubbed with fragrant herbs or flowers, the smell of which is agreeable to the bees; or with honey.

The hive should not be immediately set on the stool where it is to remain; but should be kept near the place at which the bees settled, till the evening, lest some stragglers should be lost. It should be shaded either with boughs or with a cloth, that the too great heat of the sun may not annoy the bees.

We sometimes see a swarm of bees, after having left their hive, and even alighted upon a tree, return to their first abode. This never happens but when the young queen did not come forth with them, for want of strength, or perhaps courage to trust her wings for the first time; or possibly from a consciousness of her not being impregnated.

When a swarm is too few in number for a hive, another may be added. The usual method of thus uniting swarms is very easy. Spread a cloth at night upon the ground close to the hive in which the two castes or swarms are to be united; lay a stick across this cloth; then fetch the hive with the new swarm, let it over the stick, give a smart stroke on the top of the hive, and all the bees will drop down upon the cloth in a cluster. This done, throw aside the empty hive, take the other from off the stool, and set this last over the bees, who will soon ascend into it, mix with those already there, and become one and the same family. Others, instead of striking the bees down upon the cloth, place with its bottom upmost the hive in which the united swarms are to live, and strike the bees of the other hive down into it. The former of these hives is then restored to its natural situation, and the bees of both hives soon unite. If some bees still adhere to the other hive, they may be brushed off on the cloth, and they will soon join their brethren. Or one may take the following method, which gives less disturbance to the bees. Set with its mouth upmost the hive into which the young swarm has been put, and set upon it the other hive. The bees in the lower hive, finding themselves in an inverted situation, will soon ascend into the upper.

Though all writers acknowledge, that one of the queens is constantly slain on these occasions, and generally a considerable number of the working bees; yet none of them, Columella excepted, has proposed the easy remedy of killing the queen of the latter cast or swarm before the union is made; a means by which the lives of the working bees may be preserved. This may be done either by intoxicating them and then picking her out, or by searching her out when the bees are beaten down upon the cloth; for this being done in the night, to prevent the battle which might otherwise ensue, there will be no great difficulty in finding her.

A large swarm may weigh eight pounds, and so gradually less to one pound: consequently a very good one may weigh five or fix pounds. All such as weigh less than four pounds should be strengthened by uniting to each of them a less numerous swarm. The size of the hive should be proportioned to the number of the bees; and, as a general rule, it should be rather under than over sized, because bees require to be kept warmer than a large hive will admit of.

In the Letters from an American Farmer, we have the following entertaining account of the swarming of bees, their flight into the woods, and the method of discovering them there. A little experience renders it easy to predict the time of their swarming: but the "difficult point is, when on the wing, to know whether they want to go to the woods or not. If they have previously pitched in some hollow trees, it is not the allurements of salt and water, of fennel, hickory leaves, &c. nor the finest box, that can induce them to stay. They will prefer those rude, rough, habitations, to the best polished mahogany hive. When that is the case with mine, I seldom thwart their inclinations. It is in freedom that they work. Were I to confine them, they would dwindle away and quit their labour. In such excursions we only part for a while. I am generally sure to find them again the following fall. This elopement of theirs only adds to my recreations. I know how to deceive even their superlative instinct. Nor do I fear losing them, though 18 miles from my house, and lodged in the most lofty trees in the most impervious of our forests. After I have done sowing, by way of recreation I prepare for a week's jaunt in the woods, not to hunt either the deer or the bears, as my neighbours do, but to catch the more harmless bees. I cannot boast that this chase is so noble or so famous among men: but I find it less fatiguing, and full as profitable; and the last consideration is the only one that moves me. I take with me my dog, as a companion, for he is useful as to this game; my gun, for no one ought to enter the woods without one; my blanket, some provisions, some wax, vermilion, honey, and a small pocket-compass. With these implements I proceed to such woods as are at a considerable distance from any settlements. I carefully examine whether they abound with large trees; if so, I make a small fire, on some flat stones, in a convenient place. On the fire I put some wax: close by this fire, on another stone, I drop honey in distinct drops, which I surround with small quantities of vermilion, laid on the stone; and then I retire carefully to watch whether any bees appear. If there are any in that neighbourhood, I rest assured that the smell of the burnt wax will unavoidably attract them. They will soon find out the honey, for they are fond of preying on that which is not their own; and in their approach, they will necessarily tinge themselves with some particles of vermilion, which will adhere long to their bodies. I next fix my compass, to find out their course; which they keep invariably straight, when they are returning home loaded. By the assistance of my watch, I observe how long those are in returning which are marked with vermilion. Thus possessed of the course, and, in some measure, of the distance, which I can easily guess at, I follow the first, and seldom fail of coming to the tree where those republicans are lodged. I then mark it; and thus, with patience, I have found out sometimes 11 swarms in a season; and it is inconceivable what a quantity of honey these trees will sometimes afford. It entirely depends on the size of the hollow, as the bees never rest or swarm till it is replenished; for, like men, it is only the want of room that induces them to quit the maternal hive. Next I proceed to some of the nearest settlements, where I procure proper assistance to cut down the trees, get all my prey secured, and then return home with my prize. The first bees I ever procured were thus found in the woods by mere accident; for, at that time, I had no kind of skill in this method of tracing them. The body of the tree being perfectly found, they had lodged themselves in the hollow of one of its principal limbs, which I carefully sawed off, and, with a good deal of labour and industry, brought it home, where I fixed it up in the same position in which I found it growing. This was in April. I had five swarms that year, and they have been ever since very prosperous. This business generally takes up a week of my time every fall, and to me it is a week of solitary ease and relaxation."

3. Of shifting the Abode of Bees. Great improvements may certainly be made in the essential article of providing plenty of pasture for bees, whenever this subject shall be more carefully attended to than it has hitherto been. A rich corn country is well known to be a barren desert to them during the most considerable part of the year; and therefore the practice of other nations, in shifting the places of abode of their bees, well deserves our imitation.

Columella informs us, that, as few places are so happily situated as to afford the bees proper pasture both in the beginning of the season and also in the autumn, it was the advice of Celsus, that, after the vernal pastures are consumed, the bees should be transported to places abounding with autumnal flowers; as was practised by conveying the bees from Achaia to Attica, from Euboea and the Cyclad islands to Scyrus; and also in Sicily, where they were brought to Hybla from other parts of the island.

We find by Pliny, that this was likewise the practice of Italy in his time. "As soon," says he, "as the spring-food for bees has failed in the valleys near our towns, the hives of bees are put into boats, and carried up against the stream of the river, in the night, in search of better pasture. The bees go out in the morning in quest of provisions, and return regularly to their hives in the boats, with the stores they have collected. This method is continued, till the sinking of the boats to a certain depth in the water shows that the hives are sufficiently full; and they are then carried back to their former homes, where their honey is taken out of them." And this is still the practice of the Italians who live near the banks of the Po, (the river which Pliny instanced particularly in the above-quoted passage).

M. Maillet relates, in his curious Description of Egypt, that, "I spite of the ignorance and rusticity which have got possession of that country, there yet remain in it several footstamps of the industry and skill of the ancient Egyptians. One of their most admirable contrivances is, their sending their bees annually into distant countries, in order to procure them sustenance there, at a time when they could not find any at home; and their afterwards bringing them back, like shepherds who should travel with their flock, and make them feed as they go. It was observed by the ancient inhabitants of Lower Egypt, that all plants blossomed, and the fruits of the earth ripened, above six weeks earlier in Upper Egypt than with them. They applied this remark to their bees; and the means then made use of by them, to enable these usefully industrious insects to reap advantage from the more forward state of nature there, were exactly the same as are now practised, for the like purpose, in that country. About the end of October, all such inhabitants of Lower Egypt as have hives of bees, embark them on the Nile, and convey them up that river quite into Upper Egypt; observing to time it so that they arrive there just when the inundation is withdrawn, the lands have been sown, and the flowers begin to bud. The hives thus sent are marked and numbered by their respective owners, and placed pyramidically in boats prepared for the purpose. After they have remained some days at their farthest station, and are supposed to have gathered all the wax and honey they could find in the fields within two or three leagues around; their conductors convey them in the same boats two or three leagues lower down, and there leave the laborious insects so long time as is necessary for them to collect all the riches of this spot. Thus, the nearer they come to the place of their more permanent abode, they find the productions of the earth, and the plants which afford them food, forward in proportion. In fine, about the beginning of February, after having travelled through the whole length of Egypt, gathering all the rich produce of the delightful banks of the Nile, they arrive at the mouth of that river, towards the ocean; from whence they set out, and from whence they are now returned to their several homes: for care is taken to keep an exact register of every district from whence the hives were sent in the beginning of the season, of their numbers, of the names of the persons who sent them, and likewise of the mark or number of the boat in which they were placed."

In many parts of France, floating bee-houses are very common. They have on board one barge three-score or a hundred bee-hives, well defended from the inclemency of an accidental storm. With these the owners suffer themselves to float gently down the river, the bees continually choosing their flowery pasture along the banks of the stream; and thus a single floating bee-house yields the proprietor a considerable income.

They have also a method of transporting their bees by land, well worth our imitation in many parts of this kingdom. Their first care is, to examine those hives, some of whose honey-combs might be broken or separated by the jolting of the vehicle; they are made fast one to the other, and against the sides of the hive, by means of small sticks, which may be disposed differently as occasion will point out. This being done, every hive is set upon a packing-cloth, or something like it, the threads of which are very wide; the sides of this cloth are then turned up and laid on the outside of each hive, in which state they are tied together with a piece of small pack-thread wound several times round the hive. As many hives as a cart built for that purpose will hold, are afterwards placed in this vehicle. The hives are set two and two, the whole length of the cart. Over these are placed others; which make, as it were, a second story or bed of hives. Those which are stored with combs should always be turned topsy-turvy. It is for the sake of their combs, and to fix them the better, that they are dipoled in this manner; for such as have but a small quantity of combs in them, are placed in their natural situation. Care is taken in this stowage not to let one hive stop up another, it being essentially necessary for the bees to have air; and it is for this reason they are wrapped up in a coarse cloth, the threads of which were very wide, in order that the air may have a free passage, and lessen the heat which these insects raise in their hives, especially when they move about very tumultuously, as often happens in these caravans. Those used for this purpose in Yvre, hold from 30 to 48 hives. As soon as all are thus stowed, the caravan sets out. If the season is sultry, they travel only in the night; but a proper advantage is made of cool days. These caravans do not go fast. The horses must not be permitted even to trot; they are led slowly, and through the smoothest roads. When there are not combs in the hives sufficient to support the bees during their journey, the owner takes the earliest opportunity of refting them wherever they can collect wax. The hives are taken out of the cart, then set upon the ground, and after removing the cloth from over them, the bees go forth in search of food. The first field they come to serves them as an inn. In the evening, as soon as they are all returned, the hives are shut up; and being placed again in the cart, they proceed on their journey. When the caravan is arrived at the journey's end, the hives are distributed in the gardens, or in the fields adjacent to the houses of different peasants, who, for a very small reward, undertake to look after them. Thus it is that, in such spots as do not abound in flowers at all seasons, means are found to supply the bees with food during the whole year.

These instances of the great advantages which attend shifting of bees in search of pasture, afford an excellent lesson to many places in this kingdom: they direct particularly the inhabitants of the rich vales, where the harvest for bees ends early, to remove their stocks to places which abound in heath, this plant continuing in bloom during a considerable part of autumn, and yielding great plenty of food to bees. Those in the neighbourhood of hills and mountains will save the bees a great deal of labour, by taking also the advantage of shifting their places of abode.

4. Of feeding and defending Bees in Winter. Providence has ordained, that insects which feed on leaves, flowers, and green succulent plants, are in an infensible and torpid state from the time that the winter's cold has deprived them of the means of subsistence. Thus the bees during the winter are in so lethargic a state, that little food supports them: but as the weather is very changeable, and every warm and sunny day revives them, and prompts them to return to exercise, food becomes necessary on these occasions.

Many hives of bees, which are thought to die of cold in the winter, in truth die of famine; when a rainy summer has hindered the bees from laying in a sufficient store of provisions. The hives should therefore be carefully examined in the autumn, and should then weigh at least 18 pounds.

Columella describes an annual distemper which seizes bees in the spring, when the spurge blossoms, and the elm discloses its seeds; for that, being allured by the first flowers, they feed so greedily upon them, that they forfeit themselves, and die of a looseness, if they are not speedily relieved.

The authors of the Maison Rustique impute this purging to the bees feeding on pure honey, which does not form a food sufficiently substantial for them, unless they have bee-bread to eat at the same time; and advise giving them a honey-comb taken from another hive, the cells of which are filled with crude wax or bee-bread.

There is still, however, a want of experiments to ascertain both the time and the manner in which bees should be fed. The common practice is to feed them in the autumn, giving them as much honey as will bring the whole weight of the hive to near 20 pounds. To this end, the honey is diluted with water, and then put into an empty comb, split reeds, or, as Columella directs, upon clean wool, which the bees will suck perfectly dry. But the dilution with water makes the honey apt to be candied, and honey in that state is prejudicial to bees.

The following directions given in the Maison Rustique seem to be very judicious. Replenish the weak hives in September with such a portion of combs full of honey taken from other hives as shall be judged to be a sufficient supply for them. In order to do this, turn up the weak hive, after taking the precaution of defending yourself with the smoke of rags, cut out the empty combs, and put the full ones in their place; where secure them with pieces of wood run across, in such manner that they may not fall down when the hive is returned to its place. The bees will soon fix them more effectually. If this method be thought too troublesome, set under the hive a plate of liquid honey, unmixed with water, with straws laid across it, and over these a paper pierced full of holes, through which the bees will suck the honey without daubing themselves. This should be done in cloudy or rainy weather, when the bees stir least abroad; and the hive should be covered, to protect the bees from robbers, who might be allured to it by the smell of the honey.

Another circumstance which may render it very necessary to feed the bees is, when several days of bad weather ensue immediately after they have swarmed; for then, being destitute of every supply beyond what they carried with them, they may be in great danger of starving. In this case, honey should be given them in proportion to the duration of the bad weather.

The degree of cold which bees can endure has not been ascertained. We find that they live in the cold parts of Russia, and often in hollow trees, without any care being taken of them. Their hives are frequently made of the bark of trees, which does not afford them much protection from cold. Mr White, therefore, judiciously observes, that bees which stand on the north side of a building whose height intercepts the sun's beams all the winter, will waste less of their provisions (almost by half) than others which stand in the sun: for coming seldom forth, they eat little; and yet in the spring are as forward to work and swarm as those which had twice as much honey in the autumn before. The owner should, however, examine their state in the winter; and if he finds that, instead of being cluttered between between the combs, they fall down in numbers on the stool or bottom of the hive, the hive should be carried to a warmer place, where they will soon recover. He must be cautious in returning them again to the cold, lest the honey be candied.

Where the winters are extremely severe, the authors of the Maison Rustique advise to lay on the bottom of an old cask the depth of half a foot of very dry earth, powdered and pressed down hard, and to set on this the stool with the hive; then, to preserve a communication with the air, which is absolutely necessary, to cut a hole in the cask, opposite to the mouth of the hive, and place a piece of reed, or of alder, made hollow, from the mouth of the hive to the hole in the cask; and after this to cover the hive with more of the same dry earth. If there be any room to fear that the bees will not have a sufficiency of food, a plate with honey, covered as before directed, may be put under the hive. If the number of hives be great, boxes may be made of deals nailed together, deep enough to contain the hives when covered with dry earth. The bees will thus remain all the winter free from any danger from cold, hunger, or enemies.

5. Of taking the Honey and Wax. In this country it is usual, in freezing the stores of these little animals, to rob them alof of their lives. The common method is, That when those which are doomed for slaughter have been marked out (which is generally done in September), a hole is dug near the hive, and a stick, at the end of which is a rag that has been dipped in melted brimstone, being stuck in that hole, the rag is set on fire, the hive is immediately set over it, and the earth is instantly thrown up all round, so that none of the smoke can escape. In a quarter of an hour, all the bees are seemingly dead; and they will soon after be irrecoverably so, by being buried in the earth that is returned back into the hole. By this last means it is that they are absolutely killed; for it has been found by experiment, that all the bees which have been affected only by the fume of the brimstone, recover again, except such as have been singed or hurt by the flame. Hence it is evident, that fume of brimstone might be used for intoxicating the bees, with some few precautions. The heaviest and the lightest hives are alike treated in this manner: the former, because they yield the most profit, with an immediate return; and the latter, because they would not be able to survive the winter. Those hives which weigh from 15 to 20 pounds are thought to be the fittest for keeping.

* Vide Columella, lib. ix. c. 15; and the following simple method is at this day practised in Greece, degenerate as it is. "Mount Hymethus is celebrated for the best honey in all Greece. This mountain was not less famous in times past for bees and admirable honey; the ancients believing that bees were first bred here, and that all other bees were but colonies from this mountain; which if so, we assured ourselves that it must be from this part of the mountain that the colonies were sent; both because the honey here made is the best, and that here they never destroy the bees. It is of a good consistence, of a fair gold-colour, and the same quantity sweeter more water than the like quantity of any other doth. I no sooner knew that they never destroy or impair the stock of bees in taking away their honey, but I was inquisitive to understand their method of ordering the bees; which being an art fo worthy the knowledge of the curious, I shall not think it beside the purpose, to relate what I saw, and was informed of to that effect by such as had skill in that place.

"The hives they keep their bees in are made of willows or oaks, fashioned like our common duff-baskets, wide at top and narrow at the bottom, and plastered with clay or loam within and without. They are set as in fig. 1. with the wide end uppermost. The tops are covered with broad flat sticks, which are also plastered over with clay; and, to secure them from the weather, they cover them with a tuft of straw, as we do. Along each of these sticks, the bees fasten their combs; so that a comb may be taken out whole, without the least bruising, and with the greatest ease imaginable. To increase them in spring-time, that is in March or April, until the beginning of May, they divide them; first separating the sticks on which the combs and bees are fastened, from one another, with a knife : fo, taking out the first comb and bees together on each side, they put them into another basket, in the same order as they were taken out, until they have equally divided them. After this, when they are both again accommodated with sticks and plastered, they set the new basket in the place of the old one, and the old one in some new place. And all this they do in the middle of the day, at such time as the greatest part of the bees are abroad; who at their coming home, without much difficulty, by this means divide themselves equally. This device hinders them from swarming and flying away. In August, they take out their honey. This they do in the day-time also, while they are abroad; the bees being thereby, say they, disturbed least: at which time they take out the combs laden with honey, as before; that is, beginning at each outside, and fo taking away, until they have left only such a quantity of combs, in the middle, as they judge will be sufficient to maintain the bees in winter; sweeping those bees that are on the combs into the basket again, and then covering it with new sticks and platter."

The Greek method above related was introduced into France in 1754, as we are informed by M. de Reaumur and Du Hamel, in the memoirs of the Royal Academy for that year, p. 331.

Attempts have been made in our own country to attain the desirable end of getting the honey and wax without destroying the bees; the most approved of which we shall now relate as concisely as possible.

Mr Thorley, in his Inquiry into the Nature, Order, and Government of Bees, thinks colonies preferable to ley's obliterative hives, for the following reasons: Firstly, The more certain preservation of very many thousands of these useful creatures. Secondly, Their greater strength (which consists in numbers), and consequently their greater safety from robbers. Thirdly, Their greater wealth, arising from the united labours of the greater number. He tells us, that he has in some summers taken two boxes filled with honey from one colony; and yet sufficient store has been left for their maintenance during the winter; each box weighing 40 pounds. Add to these advantages, the pleasure of viewing them, with the greatest safety, at all seasons, even in their busiest time of gathering, and their requiring a much less attendance tendance in swarming time. The bees thus managed are also more effectually secured from wet and cold, from mice and other vermin.

His boxes are made of deal, which, being spongy, sucks up the breath of the bees sooner than a more solid wood would do. Yellow dram-deal thoroughly seasoned is the best.

An octagon, being nearer to a sphere, is better than a square form; for as the bees, in winter, lie in a round body near the centre of the hive, a due heat is then conveyed to all the out-parts, and the honey is kept from candying.

The dimensions which Mr Thorley, after many years experience, recommends for the boxes, are 10 inches depth, and 12 or 14 inches breadth in the inside. He has tried boxes containing a bushel or more, but found them not to answer the design like those of a lesser size. The larger are much longer in filling; so that it is later ere you come to reap the fruits of the labour of the bees; nor is the honey there so good and fine, the effluvia even of their own bodies tainting it.

The best and purest honey is that which is gathered in the first five or fix weeks: and in boxes of less dimensions you may take, in a month or little more, provided the season be favourable, a box full of the finest honey.

The top of the box should be made of an entire board a full inch thick after it has been planed; and it should project on all sides at least an inch beyond the dimensions of the box. In the middle of this top there must be a hole five inches square, for a communication between the boxes; and this hole should be covered with a sliding shutter, of deal or elm, running easily in a groove over the back window. The eight panels, nine inches deep, and three quarters of an inch thick when planed, are to be let into the top so far as to keep them in their proper places; to be secured at the corners with plates of brads, and to be cramped with wires at the bottom to keep them firm; for the heat in summer will try their strength. There should be a glass window behind, fixed in a frame, with a thin deal-cover, two small brads hinges, and a button to fasten it. This window will be sufficient for inspecting the progress of the bees. Two brads handles, one on each side, are necessary to lift up the box: these should be fixed in with two thin plates of iron, near three inches long, so as to turn up and down, and put three inches below the top-board, which is nailed close down with springs to the other parts of the box.

Those who choose a frame within, to which the bees may fasten their combs, need only use a couple of deal sticks of an inch square, placed across the box, and supported by two pins of brads; one an inch and a half below the top, and the other two inches below it; by which means the combs will quickly find a rest. One thing more, which perfects the work, is, a passage, four or five inches long, and lets than half an inch deep, for the bees to go in and out at the bottom of the box.

1. In keeping bees in colonies, a house is necessary, or at least a shed; without which the weather, especially the heat of the sun, would soon rend the boxes to pieces.

Your house may be made of any boards you please, but deal is the best. Of whatever sort the materials are, the house must be painted, to secure it from the weather.

The length of this house, we will suppose for six colonies, should be full 12 feet and a half, and each colony should stand a foot distance from the other. It should be three feet and a half high, to admit four boxes one upon another; but if only three boxes are employed, two feet eight inches will be sufficient. Its breadth in the inside should be two feet. The four corner-pots should be made of oak, and well fixed in the ground, that no stormy winds may overturn it; and all the rails should be of oak, supported by several uprights of the same, before and behind, that they may not yield or sink under 6, 7, or 8 cwt. or upwards. The floor of the house (about two feet from the ground) should be strong and smooth, that the lowest box may stand close to it.

This floor may be made with boards or planks of deal the full length of the bee-house; or, which is preferable, with a board or plank to each colony, of two feet four inches long, and fixed down to the rails; and that part which appears at the front of the house may be cut into a semicircle, as a proper alighting place for the bees. Plane it to a slope, that the wet may fall off. When this floor to a single colony wants to be repaired, it may easily be removed, and another be placed in its room, without disturbing the other colonies, or touching any other part of the floor.

Upon this floor, at equal distances, all your colonies must be placed against a door or passage cut in the front of the house.

Only observe farther, to prevent any false step, that as the top-board of the box (being a full inch broader than the other part) will not permit the two mouths to come together, you must cut a third in a piece of deal of a sufficient breadth, and place it between the other two, so close that not a bee may get that way into the house. And fixing the said piece of deal down to the floor with two lath-nails, you will find afterwards to be of service, when you have occasion either to raise a colony, or take a box of honey, and may prove a means of preventing a great deal of trouble and mischief.

The house being in this forwardness, you may cover it to your own mind, with boards, fine flates, or tiles. But contrive their position so as to carry off the wet, and keep out the cold, rain, snow, or whatever might any way hurt and prejudice them.

The back-doors may be made of half-inch deal, two of them to shut close in a rabbet, cut in an upright pillar, which may be so contrived as to take in and out, by a mortise in the bottom rail, and a notch in the inside of the upper rail, and fastened with a strong hasp. Place these pillars in the spaces between the colonies.

Concluding your house made after this model, without front-doors, a weather-board will be very necessary to carry the water off from the places where the bees settle and rest.

Good painting will be a great preservative. Forget not to paint the mouths of your colonies with different colours, as red, white, blue, yellow, &c. in form of a half-moon, or square, that the bees may the better know their own home. Such diversity will be a direction to them.

Thus your bees are kept warm in the coldest winter; and in the hottest summer greatly refreshed by the cool air, the back doors being set open without any air-holes made in the boxes.

Dr Warden observes, that in June, July, and August, when the colonies come to be very full, and the weather proves very hot, the appearance of a shower drives the bees home in such crowds, that pressing to get in, they stop the passage so close, that those within are almost suffocated for want of air; which makes these last so uneasy, that they are like mad things. In this extremity, he has lifted the whole colony up a little on one side; and by thus giving them air, has soon quieted them. He has known them, he says, come pouring out, on such an occasion, in numbers sufficient to have filled at once two or three quarts; as if they had been going to swarm. To prevent this inconvenience, he advises cutting a hole two inches square in about the middle of one of the hinder pannels of each box. Over this hole, nail, in the inside of the box, a piece of tin-plate punched full of holes so small that a bee cannot creep through them; and have over it, on the outside, a very thin slider, made to run in grooves; so that, when it is thrust home, all may be close and warm; and when it is opened, in very hot weather, the air may pass through the hole, and prevent the suffocating heat. Or holes may be bored in the pannels themselves, on such an emergency, in a colony already settled.

Such a thorough passage for the air may be convenient in extreme heat, which is sometimes so great as to make the honey run out of the combs. The Memoirs of the truly laudable Berne Society, for the year 1764, give us a particular instance of this, when they say, that, in 1761, many in Switzerland were obliged to smother their bees, when they saw the honey and wax trickling down; not knowing any other remedy for the losses they daily sustained. Some shaded these hives from the sun, or covered them with cloths wet several times a-day, and watered the ground all around.

The best time to plant the colonies is either in spring with new stocks full of bees, or in summer with swarms. If swarms are used, procure, if possible, two of the same day: hive them either in two boxes or in a hive and a box: at night, place them in the bee-house, one over the other; and with a knife and a little lime and hair stop close the mouth of the hive or upper box, so that not a bee may be able to go in or out but at the front door. This done, you will in a week or ten days with pleasure see the combs appear in the boxes; but if it be a hive, nothing can be seen till the bees have wrought down into the box. Never plant a colony with a single swarm, as Mr Thorley says he has sometimes done, but with little success.

When the second box, or the box under the hive, appears full of bees and combs, it is time to raise the colony. This should be done in the dusk of the evening, and in the following manner:

Place your empty box, with the sliding shutter drawn back, behind the house, near the colony that is to be raised, and at nearly the height of the floor: then lifting up the colony with what expedition you can, let the empty box be put in the place where it is to stand, and the colony upon it; and shut up the mouth of the then upper box with lime and hair, as before directed.

When, by the help of the windows in the back of the boxes, you find the middle box full of combs, and a quantity of honey sealed up in it, the lowest box half full of combs, and few bees in the uppermost box, proceed thus:

About five o'clock in the afternoon, drive close with a mallet the sliding shutter under the hive or box that is to be taken from the colony. If the combs are new, the shutter may be forced home without a mallet; but be sure it be close, that no bees may ascend into the hive or box to be removed. After this shut close the doors of your house, and leave the bees thus cut off from the rest of their companions for the space of half an hour or more. In this space of time, having lost their queen, they will fill themselves with honey, and be impatient to be set at liberty.

If, in this interval, you examine the box or boxes beneath, and observe all to be quiet in them, you may be confident that the queen is there, and in safety. Hereupon raise the back part of the hive or box so far, by a piece of wood slipped under it, as to give the prisoners room to come out, and they will return to their fellows: then lifting the box from off the colony, and turning its bottom upmost, cover it with a cloth all night; and the next morning, when this cloth is removed, the bees that have remained in it will return to the colony. Thus you have a hive or box of honey, and all your bees safe.

If the bees do not all come out in this manner, Dr Warden's method may be followed, especially if it be with a hive. It is to place the hive with the small end downward in a pail, peck, or flower-pot, so as to make it stand firm: then to take an empty hive, and set it upon the former, and to draw a cloth tight round the joining of the two hives, so that none of the bees may be able to get out: after this, to strike the full hive so smartly as to disturb the bees that are in it, but with such pauses between the strokes as to allow them time to ascend into the empty hive, which must be held fast while this is doing, lest it fall off by the shaking of the other. When you perceive, by the noise of the bees in the upper hive, that they are got into this last, carry it to a cloth spread for this purpose before the colony, with one end fastened to the landing-place, and knock them out upon it: they will soon crawl up the cloth, and join their fellows, who will gladly receive them.

Mr Thorley next gives an account of his narcotic, and of the manner of using it.

The method which he has pursued with great success for many years, and which he recommends to the public as the most effectual for preserving bees in common hives, is incorporation, or uniting two flocks into one, by the help of a peculiar fume or opiate, which will put them entirely in your power for a time to divide and dispose of at pleasure. But as that dominion over them will be of short duration, you must be expeditious in this business.

The queen is immediately to be searched for, and killed. Hives which have swarmed twice, and are consequently reduced in their numbers, are the fittest to be joined together, as this will greatly strengthen and improve them. If a hive which you would take is both both rich in honey and full of bees, it is but dividing the bees into two parts, and putting them into two boxes instead of one. Examine whether the stock to which you intend to join the bees of another have honey enough in it to maintain the bees of both: it should weigh full 20 pounds.

The narcotic, or stupifying fume, is made with the fungus maximus or pulverulentus, the large mushroom, commonly known by the name of bunt, puck/ft, or frogcheese. It is as big as a man's head, or bigger; when ripe, it is of a brown colour, turns to powder, and is exceeding light. Put one of these pucks into a large paper, press it therein to two-thirds or near half the bulk of its former size, and tie it up very close; then put it into an oven some time after the household bread has been drawn, and let it remain there all night; when it is dry enough to hold fire it is fit for use. The manner of using it is thus:

Cut off a piece of the puck, as large as a hen's egg, and fix it in the end of a small stick, lit for that purpose, and sharpened at the other end; which place so that the puck may hang near the middle of an empty hive. This hive must be set with the mouth upward, in a pail or bucket which should hold it steady, near the stock you intend to take. This done, set fire to the puck, and immediately place the stock of bees over it, tying a cloth round the hives, that no smoke may come forth. In a minute's time, or little more, you will hear the bees fall like drops of hail into the empty hive. You may then beat the top of the full hive gently with your hand, to get out as many of them as you can: after this, loosing the cloth, lift the hive off to a table, knock it several times against the table, several more bees will tumble out, and perhaps the queen among them. She often is one of the last that falls. If she is not there, search for her among the main body in the empty hive, spreading them for this purpose on a table.

You must proceed in the same manner with the other hive, with the bees of which these are to be united. One of the queens being secured, you must put the bees of both hives together, mingle them thoroughly, and drop them among the combs of the hive which they are intended to inhabit. When they are all in, cover it with a packing or other coarse cloth which will admit air, and let them remain shut up all that night and the next day. You will soon be sensible that they are awaked from this sleep.

The second night after their union, in the dusk of the evening, gently remove the cloth from off the mouth of the hive (taking care of yourself), and the bees will immediately fall forth with a great noise; but being too late, they will soon return: then inserting two pieces of tobacco-pipes to let in air, keep them confined for three or four days, after which the door may be left open.

The best time for uniting bees is, after their young brood are all out, and before they begin to lodge in the empty cells. As to the hour of the day, he advises young practitioners to do it early in the afternoon, in order that having the longer light they may the more easily find out the queen. He never knew such combined stocks conquered by robbers. They will either swarm in the next summer, or yield a hive full of honey.

Mr N. Thornley son of the above-mentioned clergyman, has added to the edition which he has given of his father's book, a postscript, purporting, that persons who choose to keep bees in glass-hives may, after uncovering the hole at the top of a flat-topped straw-hive, or box, place the glass over it so close that no bee can go in or out but at the bottom of the hive or box. The glass-hive must be covered with an empty hive or with a cloth, that too much light may not prevent the bees from working. As soon as they have filled the straw-hive or box, they will begin to work up into the glass-hive. He tells us, that he himself has had one of these glass-hives filled by the bees in 30 days in a fine season; and that it contained 38 pounds of fine honey. When the glass is completely filled, slide a tin-plate between it and the hive or box, so as to cover the passage, and in half an hour the glass may be taken off with safety. What few bees remain in it, will readily go to their companions. He has added a glass window to his straw-hives, in order to see what progress bees make; which is of some importance, especially if one hive is to be taken away whilst the season still continues favourable for their collecting honey; for when the combs are filled with honey, the cells are sealed up, and the bees forsake them, and reside mostly in the hive in which their works are chiefly carried on. Observing also that the bees were apt to extend their combs through the passage of communication in the upper hive, whether glass or other, which rendered it necessary to divide the comb when the upper hive was taken away, he now puts in that passage a wire screen or netting, the meshes of which are large enough for a loaded bee to go easily through them. This prevents the joining of the combs from one box to the other, and consequently obviates the necessity of cutting them, and of spilling some of the honey, which running down among a crowd of bees, used before to inconvenience them much, it being difficult for them to clear their wings of it. Fig. 2. is Plate XC. a drawing of one of his colonies.

2. The reverend Mr White informs us, that his fondness for these little animals soon put him upon endeavouring if possible to save them from fire and brimstone; that he thought he had reason to be content to share their labours for the present, and great reason to rejoice if he could at any time preserve their lives, to work for him another year; and that the main drift of his observations and experiments has therefore been, to discover an easy and cheap method, suited to the abilities of the common people, of taking away so much honey as can be spared, without destroying or starving the bees; and by the same means to encourage reasonable swarms.

In his directions how to make the bee-boxes of his invention, he tells us, speaking of the manner of constructing a single one, that it may be made of deal or any other well-seasoned boards which are not apt to warp or split. The boards should be near an inch thick; the figure of the box square, and its height and breadth nine inches and five-eighths, every way, measuring within. With these dimensions it will contain near a peck and a half. The front part must have a door cut in the middle of the bottom edge, three inches wide, and near half an inch in height, which will give free liberty to the bees to pass through, yet not be large enough for their enemy the mouse to enter. In the back part you must cut a hole with a rabbet in it, in which you are to fix a pane of the clearest and best crown-glas, about five inches in length and three in breadth, and fasten it with putty; let the top of the glass be placed as high as the roof, withinside, that you may see the upper part of the combs, where the bees with their riches are mostly placed. You will by this means be better able to judge of their state and strength, than if your glass was fixed in the middle. The glass must be covered with a thin piece of board, by way of shutter, which may be made to hang by a string, or turn upon a nail, or slide sidewise between two mouldings. Such as are desirous of seeing more of the bees works, may make the glass as large as the box will admit without weakening it too much; or they may add a pane of glass on the top, which must likewise be covered with a shutter, fastened down with pegs, to prevent accidents.

The side of the box which is to be joined to another box of the same form and dimensions, as it will not be exposed to the internal air, may be made of a piece of slit deal not half an inch thick. This he calls the side of communication, because it is not to be wholly enclosed: a space is to be left at the bottom the whole breadth of the box, and a little more than an inch in height; and a hole or passage is to be made at top, three inches long, and more than half an inch wide. Through these the bees are to have a communication from one box to the other. The lower communication being on the floor, our labourers, with their burdens, may readily and easily ascend into either of the boxes. The upper communication is only intended as a passage between the boxes, resembling the little holes or narrow passes, which may be observed in the combs formed by our sagacious architects, to save time and shorten the way when they have occasion to pass from one comb to another; just as in populous cities, there are narrow lanes and alleys passing transversely from one large street to another.

In the next place you are to provide a loose board, half an inch thick, and large enough to cover the side where you have made the communications. You are likewise to have in readiness several little iron staples, an inch and half long, with the two points or end bended down more than half an inch. The use of these will be seen presently.

You have now only to fix two sticks crossing the box from side to side, and crossing each other, to be a stay to the combs; one about three inches from the bottom, the other the same distance from the top; and when you have painted the whole, to make it more durable, your box is finished.

The judicious bee-master will here observe, that the form of the box now described is as plain as possible for it to be. It is little more than five square pieces of board nailed together; so that a poor cottager who has but ingenuity enough to saw a board into the given dimensions, and to drive a nail, may make his own boxes well enough, without the help or expense of a carpenter.

No directions are necessary for making the other box, which must be of the same form and dimensions. The two boxes differ from each other only in this, that the side of communication of the one must be on your right hand; of the other on your left. Fig. 3. represents two of these boxes, with their openings of communication, ready to join to each other.

Mr White's manner of having a swarm into one or both of these boxes is thus:

You are to take the loose board, and fasten it to one of the boxes, so as to stop the communications. This may be done by three of the staples before mentioned; one on the top of the box near the front; the two others on the back, near the top and near the bottom. Let one end of the staple be thrust into a gimlet-hole made in the box, so that the other end may go as tight as can be over the loose board, to keep it from slipping when it is handled. The next morning after the bees have been hived in this box, the other box should be added, and the loose board should be taken away. This will prevent a great deal of labour to the bees, and some to the proprietor.

Be careful to fasten the shutter so close to the glass that no light may enter through it; for the bees seem to look upon such a light as a hole or breach in their house, and on that account may not so well like their new habitation. But the principal thing to be observed at this time is, to cover the box as soon as the bees are hived with a linen cloth thrown closely over it, or with green boughs to protect it from the piercing heat of the sun. Boxes will admit the heat much sooner than straw-hives; and if the bees find their house too hot for them, they will be wise enough to leave it. If the swarm be larger than usual, instead of fastening the loose board to one box, you may join two boxes together with three staples, leaving the communication open from one to the other, and then hive your bees into both. In all other respects, they are to be hived in boxes after the same manner as in common hives.

The door of the second box should be carefully stopped up, and be kept constantly closed, in order that the bees may not have an entrance but through the first box.

When the boxes are set in the places where they are to remain, they must be screened from the summer's fun, because the wood will otherwise be heated to a greater degree than either the bees or their works can bear; and they should likewise be screened from the winter's fun, because the warmth of this will draw the bees from that lethargic state which is natural to them, as well as many other insects, in the winter season. For this purpose, and also to shelter the boxes from rain, our ingenious clergyman has contrived the following frame.

Fig. 4. represents the front of a frame for twelve colonies: \(a, a\) are two cells of oak lying flat on the ground more than four feet long. In these cells are fixed four oaken posts, about the thickness of such as are used for drying linen. The two posts \(b, b\), in the front, are about fix feet two inches above the cells: the other two, standing backward, five feet eight inches. You are next to nail some boards of slit deal horizontally from one of the fore-posts to the other, to screen the bees from the fun. Let these boards be seven feet seven inches in length, and nailed to the inside of the posts; and be well seamed that they may not shrink or gape in the joints. \(c, c\) Are two splints of deal, to keep the boards even, and strengthen them.

Fig. 5. represents the back of the frame. \(d, d, d, d,\) Are four strong boards of the same length with the frame on which you are to place the boxes. Let the upper side of them be very smooth and even, that the boxes may stand true upon them: or it may be still more advisable, to place under every pair of boxes a smooth thin board, as long as the boxes, and about a quarter of an inch wider. The bees will soon fasten the boxes to this board in such a manner that you may move or weigh the boxes and board together, without breaking the wax or resin, which for many reasons ought to be avoided. These floors must be supported by pieces of wood or bearers, which are nailed from pof to pof at each end. They are likewise to be well nailed to the frame, to keep them from sinking with the weight of the boxes. fRepresents the roof, which projects backward about seven or eight inches beyond the boxes, to shelter them from rain. You have now only to cut niches or holes in the frame, over against each mouth or entrance into the boxes, at h, h, h, in fig. 4. Let these niches be near four inches long; and under each you must nail a small piece of wood for the bees to alight upon. The morning or evening sun will shine upon one or both ends of the frame, let its aspect be what it will: but you may prevent its overheating the boxes, by a loose board set up between the pofs, and kept in by two or three pegs.

The same gentleman, with great humanity, observes, that no true lover of bees ever lighted the fatal match without much concern: and that it is evidently more to our advantage, to spare the lives of our bees, and be content with part of their stores, than to kill and take possession of the whole.

About the latter end of August, says he, by a little inspection through your glases, you may easily discover which of your colonies you may lay under contribution. Such as have filled a box and a half with their works, will pretty readily yield you the half box. But you are not to depend upon the quantity of combs, without examining how they are stored with honey. The bees should, according to him, have eight or nine pounds left them, by way of wages for their summer's work.

The most proper time for this business is the middle of the day; and as you stand behind the frame, you will need no armour, except a pair of gloves. The operation itself is very simple and easily performed, thus: Open the mouth of the box you intend to take; then with a thin knife cut through the resin with which the bees have joined the boxes to each other, till you find that you have separated them; and after this, thrust a sheet of tin gently in between the boxes. The communication being hereby flopped, the bees in the fullest box, where it is most likely the queen is, will be a little disturbed at the operation; but those in the other box where we suppose the queen is not, will run to and fro in the utmost hurry and confusion, and send forth a mournful cry, easily distinguished from their other notes. They will issue out at the newly opened door; not in a body as when they swarm, nor with such calm and cheerful activity as when they go forth to their labours; but by one or two at a time, with a wild flutter and visible rage and disorder. This, however, is soon over: for as soon as they get abroad and spy their fellows, they fly to them instantly and join them at the mouth of the other box. By this means, in an hour or two, for they go out slowly, you will have a box of pure honey, without leaving a bee in it to molest you; and likewise without dead bees, which, when you burn them, are often mixed with your honey, and both waste and damage it.

Mr White acknowledges, that he has sometimes found this method fail, when the mouth of the box to be taken away has not been constantly and carefully closed: the bees will in this case get acquainted with it as an entrance; and when you open the mouth in order to their leaving this box, many of them will be apt to return, and the communication being stopped, will in a short time carry away all the honey from this to the other box; so much do they abhor a separation. When this happens, he has recourse to the following expedient, which he thinks infallible. He takes a piece of deal, a little larger than will cover the mouth of the box, and cuts in it a square niche somewhat more than half an inch wide. In this niche he hangs a little trap-door, made of a thin piece of tin, turning upon a pin, with another pin crosting the niche a little lower, so as to prevent the hanging door from opening both ways. This being placed close to the mouth, the bees which want to get out will easily thrust open the door outwards, but cannot open it the other way to get in again; so must, and will readily, make to the other box, leaving this in about the space of two hours, with all its store, justly due to the tender-hearted bee-master as a ransom for their lives.

What led Mr White to prefer collateral boxes to those before in use, was, to use his own words, his "compasion for the poor bees, who, after traversing the fields, return home weary and heavy laden, and must perhaps deposit their burden up two pair of stairs, or in the garret. The lower room, it is likely, is not yet furnished with stairs: for, as is well known, our little architects lay the foundation of their structures at the top and build downward. In this case, the weary little labourer is to drag her load up the sides of the walls: and when she has done this, she will travel many times backward and forward, as I have frequently seen, along the roof, before she finds the door or passage into the second story; and here again she is perplexed with a like puzzling labyrinth, before she gets into the third. What a waste is here of that precious time which our bees value so much, and which they employ so well! and what an expence of strength and spirits, on which their support and sustenance depend! In the collateral boxes, the rooms are all on the ground floor; and because I know my bees are wise enough to value convenience more than state, I have made them of such a moderate, though decent, height, that the bees have much less way to climb to the top of them than they have to the crown of a common hive."

Mr Wildman's hives have been already described Of the ma- (No 23, 24.). A good swarm will soon fill one of these nagement hives, and therefore another hive may be put under it next morning. The larger space allowed the bees will excite their industry in filling them with combs. The Queen will lay some eggs in the upper hive; but fo soon as the lower hive is filled with combs, she will lay most of them in it. In little more than three weeks, all the eggs laid in the upper hive will be turned into bees; and if the season is favourable, their cells will be soon filled with honey.

As soon as they want room, a third hive should be placed placed under the two former; and in a few days after the end of three weeks from the time the swarm was put into the hive, the top hive may be taken away at noon of a fair day; and if any bees remain in it, carry it to a little distance from the stand, and turning its bottom up, and striking it on the sides, the bees will be alarmed, take wing, and join their companions in the second and third hives. If it is found that the bees are very willing to quit it, it is probable that the queen remains among them. In this case, the bees must be treated in the manner that shall be directed when we describe Mr Wildman's method of taking the honey and the wax. The upper hive now taken away should be put in a cool place, in which no vermin, mice, &c. can come at the combs, or other damage can happen to them, and be thus preserved in reserve.

When the hives seem to be again crowded, and the upper hive is well stored or filled with honey, a fourth hive should be placed under the third, and the upper hive be taken off the next fair day at noon, and treated as already directed. As the honey made during the summer is the best, and as it is needless to keep many full hives in store, the honey may be taken out of the combs of this second hive for use.

If the season is very favourable, the bees may still fill a third hive. In this case, a fifth hive must be put under the fourth, and the third taken away as before. The bees will then fill the fourth for their winter store.

As the honey of the first hive is better than the honey collected so late as that in the third, the honey may be taken out of the combs of the first, and the third may be preserved with the same care as directed for that.

In the month of September, the top hive should be examined; if full, it will be a sufficient provision for the winter; but if light, that is, not containing 20 pounds of honey, the more the better, then, in the month of October, the fifth hive should be taken away, and the hive kept in reserve should be put upon the remaining one, to supply the bees with abundant provisions for the winter. Nor need the owner grudge them this ample store; for they are faithful stewards, and will be proportionally richer and more forward in the spring and summer, when he will reap an abundant profit. The fifth hive which was taken away should be carefully preserved during the winter, that it may be restored to the same stock of bees, when an additional hive is wanted next summer; or the first swarm that comes off may be put into it. The combs in it, if kept free from filth and vermin, will save much labour, and they will at once go to the collecting of honey.

It is almost needless to observe, that when the hives are changed, a cover, as already directed (see No 23.) should be put upon every upper hive; and that when a lower hive becomes an upper hive, the door of it should be shut up, that so their only passage out shall be by the lower hive; for otherwise the queen would be apt to lay eggs in both indiscriminately. The whole of the above detail of the management of one hive may be extended to any number; it may be proper to keep a register to each set; because, in restoring hives to the bees, they may be better pleased at receiving their own labours than that of other flocks.

If in the autumn the owner has some weak hives, which have neither provision nor number sufficient for the winter, it is advisable to join the bees to richer hives: for the greater number of bees will be a mutual advantage to one another during the winter, and accelerate their labours much in the spring. For this purpose, carry a poor and a richer hive into a room a little before night: then force the bees out of both hives into two separate empty hives, in a manner that shall be hereafter directed: shake upon a cloth the bees out of the hive which contains the fewest; search for the queen; and as soon as you have secured her with a sufficient retinue, bring the other hive which contains the greater number, and place it on the cloth on which the other bees are, with a support under one side, and with a spoon shovel the bees under it. They will soon ascend; and, while under this impression of fear, will unite peaceably with the other bees; whereas, had they been added to the bees of the richer hive, while in possession of their cattle, many of the new-comers must have paid with their lives for their intrusion.

It appears from the account of the management of bees in Mr Wildman's hives, that there is very little art wanting to cause the bees to quit the hives which are taken away, unless a queen happens by chance to be among them. In that case, the same means may be used as are necessary when we would rob one of the common hives of part of their wealth. The method is as follows:

Remove the hive from which you would take the His method wax and honey into a room, into which admit but of taking little light, that it may at first appear to the bees as if it was late in the evening. Gently invert the hive, placing it between the frames of a chair or other steady support, and cover it with an empty hive, keeping that side of the empty hive raised a little, which is next the window, to give the bees sufficient light to get up into it. While you hold the empty hive, steadily supported on the edge of the full hive, between your side and your left arm, keep striking with the other hand all round the full hive from top to bottom, in the manner of beating a drum, so that the bees may be frightened by the continued noise from all quarters; and they will in consequence mount out of the full hive into the empty one. Repeat the strokes rather quick than strong round the hive, till all the bees are got out of it, which in general will be in about five minutes. It is to be observed, that the fuller the hive is of bees, the sooner they will have left it. As soon as a number of them have got into the empty hive, it should be raised a little from the full one, that the bees may not continue to run from the one to the other, but rather keep ascending upon one another.

So soon as all the bees are out of the full hive, the hive in which the bees are must be placed on the stand from which the other hive was taken, in order to receive the absent bees as they return from the fields.

If this is done early in the season, the operator should examine the royal cells, that any of them that have young in them may be saved, as well as the combs which have young bees in them, which should on no account be touched, though by sparing them a good deal of honey be left behind. Then take out the other combs with a long, broad, and pliable knife, such as the apothecaries make use of. The combs should be cut from the sides and crown as clean as possible, to save the future labour of the bees, who must lick up the

PLATE LXXXIX.

Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Fig. 12. Fig. 13. Fig. 14. Fig. 15. Fig. 16. Fig. 17. Fig. 18. Fig. 19. Fig. 20. Fig. 21.

Reff Sculp.

PLATE XC.

Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 4. Fig. 3. Fig. 5.

BIRD CATCHING.

Fig. 6. Fig. 7. the honey spilt, and remove every remain of wax, and then the sides of the hive should be scraped with a table spoon to clear away what was left by the knife.

During the whole of this operation, the hive should be placed inclined to the side from which the combs are taken, that the honey which is spilt may not daub the remaining combs. If some combs were unavoidably taken away, in which there are young bees, the parts of the combs in which they are should be returned into the hive, and secured by sticks in the best manner possible. Place the hive then for some time upright, that any remaining honey may drain out. If the combs are built in a direction opposite to the entrance, or at right angles with it, the combs which are the farthest from the entrance are to be preferred; because there they are best floored with honey, and have the fewest young bees in them.

Having thus finished taking the wax and honey, the next business is to return the bees to their old hive; and for this purpose place a table covered with a clean cloth near the stand, and giving the hive in which the bees are a sudden shake, at the same time striking it pretty forcibly, the bees will be thaken on the cloth. Put their own hive over them immediately, raised a little on one side, that the bees may the more easily enter; and when all are entered, place it on the stand as before. If the hive in which the bees are be turned bottom uppermost, and their own hive be placed over it, the bees will immediately ascend into it, especially if the lower hive is struck on the sides to alarm them.

As the chief object of the bees during the spring and beginning of the summer is the propagation of their kind, honey during that time is not collected in such quantity as it is afterwards: and on this account it is scarcely worth while to rob a hive before the latter end of June; nor is it safe to do it after the middle of July, lest rainy weather may prevent their restoring the combs they have lost, and laying in a stock of honey sufficient for the winter, unless there is a chance of carrying them to a rich pasture.

Bee is also used figuratively to denote sweetness, industry, &c. Thus Xenophon is called the Attic Bee, on account of the great sweetness of his style. Antonius got the denomination Melissa or Bee, on account of his collection of common places.—Leo Allatius gave the appellation apes urbane to the illustrious men at Rome, from the year 1630 to the year 1632.

Bee's-Bread. See Bee, No. 12, par. ult. Bee-Eater. See Merops, Ornithology Index. Bee-Flower. See Ophrys, Botany Index. Bee-Glue, called by the ancients propolis, is a soft, unctuous, glutinous matter, employed by bees to cement the combs to the hives, and to close up the cells. See Bee, No. 13. Bee-Hive. See Bee, No. 19, 34, 36. Beech-tree. See Fagus, Botany Index. Beech-Malt, the fruit of the beech-tree, said to be good for fattening hogs, deer, &c.—It has sometimes, even to men, proved an useful substitute for bread. Chios is said to have endured a memorable siege by means of it.