THE HONEY-BEE. ] 47 



This fact, which, it must be acknowledged, occurs 

 very seldom, is at variance with the doctrine of Huber, 

 that the young Queen lays the eggs of workers only 

 for eleven months successively. He admits, though 

 not very explicitly, that a Queen hatched in spring 

 may lay fifty or sixty drone eggs during the course 

 of the ensuing summer, but he refers to the swarm 

 led forth by the old Queen, exclusively, when he 

 speaks of its producing a new colony in the same 

 season in the course of a month after its first de- 

 parture. With respect to the eleven months, it cer- 

 tainly consists with our own experience, that, as Fe- 

 burier asserts, the time occupied by the Queen in 

 laying the eggs of workers before she begins that 

 of drones, and, of course, those that shall produce 

 Queens and their accompanying swarms, varies ac- 

 cording to the temperature, and especially to the 

 abundance of food. A swarm, for example, that 

 came off at the end of June, sometimes throws off 

 a swarm about the middle of the following May, which 

 is little more than ten months of an interval, and, 

 on the other hand, it sometimes happens that a hive 

 which has swarmed at the middle of May, does not 

 throw another till the end of June in the follow- 

 ing year, which is above 13 months. 



On tJie Diseases and Enemies of Bees. Much 

 exaggeration has prevailed amongst apiarians on the 

 subject of the diseases of bees, many of which, or 

 rather most of *vhich, seem, on careful examination, 

 to have no existence but in the imagination of the 

 observers. After long experience and attentive ob> 



