210 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



hives. Swammerdam, and after him the two autliors 

 last quotedj found that sometimes, even in the middle of 

 winter, hives have young brood in them, which the bees 

 feed and attend to*. In an instance of this kind, which 

 fell under the eye of Huber, the thermometer stood in 

 the hive at about 92°. In colder climates, however, 

 the bees will probably be less active in the winter. They 

 are then generally situated between the combs towards 

 their lower part. But when the air grows milder, especi- 

 ally if the rays of the sun fall upon the hive and warm it, 

 they awake from their lethargy, shake their wings, and 

 begin to move and recover their activity; with which 

 their wants returning, they then feed upon the stock of 

 honey and bee-bread which they have in reserve. The 

 lowest cells are first uncovered, and their contents con- 

 sumed ; the highest are reserved to the last. The honey 

 in the lowest cells being collected in the autumn, proba- 

 bly will not keep so well as the vernal. 



The degree of heat in a hive in winter, as I have just 

 hinted, is great. A thermometer near one, in the open 

 air, that stood in January at 6|° below the freezing point, 

 upon the insertion of the bulb a little way into the hive, 

 rose to 22 1° above it; and could it have been placed be- 

 tween the combs, where the bees themselves were ag- 

 glomerated, the mercury, Reaumur conjectures, would 

 have risen as high as it does abroad in the warm days 

 in summer'^. Huber says that it stands in frost at 86° 



» January 11, 1818. My bees were out, and very alert this day. 

 The thermometer stood abroad in tlic shade at .51 i°. When tliesun 

 shone there was quite a cluster of them at the mouth of the hives, 

 and great numbers were buzzing about in the air before them. 



" V. 071. 



