110 On Bees. 



the ceconomy of a hive, which, from the accidental cir- 

 cumstances stated, the suggestions to which they led,, 

 and the interesting nature of the subject itself, we were 

 induced to examine with very minute attention. Thi^ 

 instructed us that the bees appropriate the top of the 

 hive exclusively to pure honey, intended probably en- 

 tirely for their food in winter, as they carefully close 

 the cells as they fill them. The middle of the hive is 

 their nursery, which is filled with bees- in their various 

 stages from a little maggot at the bottom of the cell, to 

 a large maggot that completely fills it, and to that chang- 

 ing into the chrysalis state where it is no longer fed. 

 In this state they are shut up, the mouths of the cells be- 

 ing closed with wax, where they remain until they are 

 perfect bees. The change appears to be very gradual ; 

 for we examined at least an hundred cells, and found 

 them from the maggot just shut up, to where the honey- 

 parts of the bee begin to appear, though still white, to 

 where the bodies turn to a darker colour, to where the 

 whole body changes ; to where at last the bee is found 

 alive and perfect, but still enclosed. Whether they extri- 

 cate themselves, or whether their prison door is opened 

 bv the older bees is not certain, though from the obser- 

 vations we made, the latter is most probable. In the case 

 stated where the contents of the hive fell out, we found 

 several of the cakes filled with bees, most of which had 

 just awakened from their chrysalis or torpid state, but 

 were still prisoners. We opened a great many of their 

 cells with a needle but with all our care, we injured the 

 young bee, which so completely filled the cell th t the 

 point of a needle found no room. We then thought of 

 laying the comb thus filled, on a dish by the side of the 



