3oS INSECTS. 



ludantly yielding a fubmifTion ; at length, after fome tumult, a queen bee 

 is cholen, to attend the young colony, which crowding round their pro- 

 tedlrefs, fets oft. The ufual time of Iwarming is from ten in the morn- 

 ing to three in the afternoon, when the fun fhines bright. They flutter a 

 while, and fometimes undertake a diftant journey, but more frequently feek 

 fome neighbouring afylum. In countries, where the bees are wild, and 

 unprore6led by man, they build their waxen cells in the hollow of a tree; 

 bur with us they feem improvident in their choice, and the firft green 

 l^ranchthat flops their flight, feems to be thought fufiicient for their abode, 

 When the queen is fettled, the refl of the fwarm foon follow. Sometimet 

 there are two or three queens to a fwarm, and the colony is divided into 

 parties ; the bees, by degrees, defert the v.'eakeft for the moft powerful 

 protestor. The deferted queen takes refuge under the new monarch, and 

 is foon deftroyed. If there fhould be a queen bee, belonging to the new 

 colony, left in the old hive, fhe always fuffers the fate of the former, unlefs 

 the hive be full of wax and honey. 



At the latter end of the fummer, when the colony isfufEciently flored 

 with inhabitants, a moft cruel policy enfues. The drone bees, who 

 had hitherto led a life of indolence and pleafure, impregnating the queen, 

 and rioting on the labours of the hive, now fall a facrifice to the general 

 refentment of the working bees, which declare war againft them; and in 

 two or three days the ground round the hive is covered with their bodies, 

 They even kill fuch drones as are yet in the worm flate in the cell, and 

 eje61: their bodies. 



Sometimes upwards of forty thoufand bees are found in a fingle hive» 

 In lefs than twenty-four hours they make combs twenty inches long, and 

 fcven or eight broad. Sometimes they will half fill their hives with wax 

 in lefs than five days. In the firft fifteen days they always make more 

 wax than they do during the refl of the year. 



In fome parts of France and Piedmont, and Egypt^ they have a kind 

 of floating bee-houfe, well defended from accidental ftorms, and float- 

 ing gently along the river. As the bees are continually choofing frelh flow- 

 ery paHiure along the banks, they arefurnifhed with fweets before unrifled. 



There are two kinds of honey, the white and the yellow. The white 

 is taken without fire from the honey-combs. The yellow is extradled by 

 heat, and Iqueezed through bags in a prefs. The beft honey is new, 

 thick, and granulated, of a clear tranfparent white colour, of a foft and 

 aromatic fmell, and of a fweet lively tafte. Honey made in moun- 

 tainous countries, is preferable to that of the valley ; honey made in 



the 



