SWARMING. 117 



naturally be expected to breed earlier in the sea- 

 son than insects in general, from the circumstance 

 of the working-bees storing up food for the young, 

 which other insects, that breed later, do not ; as 

 also from her living in the midst of a society which 

 preserves a summer heat during the coldest 

 months of winter. A thermometer in a bee-hive 

 has ranged as high as 74 Fahrenheit at Christmas ; 

 and Bonner says that he has often seen his hives 

 with young brood in them in the midst of a severe 

 frost. In the Transactions of the Society for the 

 Encouragement of Arts, &c. Mr. HUBBARD has 

 stated that vigorous well-stored hives breed even 

 in the depth of winter. In this perhaps he was 

 mistaken ; the finding of eggs and maggots in the 

 cells does not satisfy my mind, as they might have 

 been laid late in the autumn, and have remained 

 stationary till spring. Riem states, that in a bad 

 season the eggs will remain in the cells many 

 months without hatching. Mr. Hubbard was led 

 to make the experiment of suffocating a strong 

 stock in February, to ascertain the state of the 

 brood combs ; in which he says that he found an 

 abundance of brood, in every state, from that of 

 egg to the almost perfect fly ; although the pre- 

 ceding January had been very cold, accompanied 

 by frost and snow, a circumstance which in some 

 measure confirms my supposition, as to the sus- 

 pended development of the brood. Mr. Hubbard 



