130 HIVES. 



this amount has been frequently reported as found, 

 but in the absence of proof I will not vouch for its 

 correctness. 



That so large a quantity of honey as is sometimes 

 found, should ever be stored by a single swarm, and 

 succeeding generations, within the, same habitation, 

 seems at first sight to be in direct opposition to the 

 known law of the honey bee, viz : that but one queen 

 is ever tolerated in a hive, and consequently there 

 being a limit to the number of workers in each. 



It is however only in a habitation shaped as we 

 find it in a hollow tree that such large accumulations 

 of honey are ever made ; the reason is plain. A 

 swarm of bees when clustered in their hive, whether 

 it is full of comb or not, will always assume a globu- 

 lar form, or as nearly so as the shape of their habi- 

 tation will allow ; this holds good as well while in 

 their winter cluster as when building combs ; conse- 

 quently if the diameter of a cluster is equal to that 

 of their habitation, they are then able not only to 

 better regulate and economise their native heat, but 

 to exclude and guard against the intrusion of ene- 

 mies. 



Commencing to build combs at the top of the 

 cavity as they invariably do, they work them down- 

 wards, and as fast as any portion is sufficiently 

 advanced, it is immediately occupied either with 

 brood or stores. 



As each generation of brood emerges from the 

 comb, a portion of the vacancies are reoccupied with 



