REST OF INSECTS. 411 , 



hives during the winter into out-houses and cellars, 

 he says, ' that in such situations, the air, though 

 more temperate than out of doors, during the greater 

 part of the winter, is yet sufficiently cold to keep the 

 bees in that species of torpidity which does away 

 with the necessity of their eating.'* He also says, 

 positively, that the milder the weather, the more risk 

 there is of the bees consuming their honey before the 

 spring, and dying of hunger ; confirming his posi- 

 tion by an account of a striking experiment, in 

 which a hive that he transferred during winter into 

 his study, where the temperature was usually, in the 

 day, 10^ or 12° of Reaumur's thermometer above 

 freezing, or 59° Fahrenheit, though the bees were pro- 

 vided with a plentiful supply of honey, that if they 

 had been in a garden would have served past the 

 end of April, had consumed nearly their whole stock 

 before the end of February.! 



But the elder Huber records some observations 

 directly opposed to these, affirming unequivocally, 

 that, so far from being torpid in winter, the heat in a 

 well peopled hive is as high as 25° Reaumur, or 86° 

 Fahrenheit, even when the thermometer in the open 

 air is several degrees below zero, the heat thus ob- 

 served being generated in the hive by their clustering 

 together, and keeping themselves in motion ; and 

 even in the middle of winter they may be heard 

 buzzing as they always do when ventilating the 

 hive, — a process which appears to have been origi- 

 nally discovered by Huber, and of which, on account 

 of its connexion with the disputed question before us, 

 we shall give his own description : 



'■ During fine weather,' (in summer), says he, ' a 

 certain number of bees always appear before the en- 

 trance of the hive occupied in vibrating their wings, 

 but still more are found to be engaged in ventilating 



♦ Mem. vol. v, p. 682. T lb. vol. v, p. 668. 



