194 Mr. J. G. Desbovongli's Ohservatinns 



When I sent in the Essay to the Entomological Society for 

 competition, in December, 1852, the observatory hive had only 

 been stocked five months, and the observations upon it had only 

 been registered for that period and had never been continued 

 through a winter: the advertisement for such Essay was only 

 brought under my notice in June, 1852, too late to institute any 

 experiment on the particular subject of the Essay, and it was there- 

 fore prepared from materials certainly not collected with any — even 

 the most remote — view to such a purpose; but it is highly gratifying 

 to see how nearly the actual admeasurement of the numbers pro- 

 duced in a hive during the season corresponds proportionately 

 with the table contained in the Essay (which, of course, was but 

 an approximation of the actual number of bees bred in a hive). 

 The total numbers are much smaller in the observatory hive than 

 in the table of the Essay, but it must be borne in mind that the 

 cubical contents of the observatory is much smaller than an ordi- 

 nary hive. 



It will be seen by the detailed proceedings of this stock of bees, 

 that from July, 1852, to June, ISSl, no drones were existing in the 

 hive ; consequently no second impregnation of the queen could 

 take place during that period, and therefore that all the eggs pro- 

 duced were the result of one impregnation ; thus proving at least 

 that the impregnation of the queen lasts for more than one season. 



On reference to the notes of the year 1853, it will be seen that 

 the 6th of March was the first day of pollen being collected — now 

 on that day, 729 bees had been reared and sealed over without a 

 particle of pollen or bee bread being present in the hive; all had been 

 consumed previously ; this I can speak to positively, because by 

 removing the covers from opposite sides of any division of the hive, 

 I was enabled to look through the comb, and on doina: this no bee 

 bread could be seen, the cells were all clearly to be seen through. 

 1 am now speaking of the month of February. I had fully ex- 

 pected to see brood before that time ; and finding no bee bread, 

 and the season being so backward that none could be collected, I 

 naturally attributed the want of brood to the absence of pollen. 

 1 therefore cut up the comb from a dead hive and supplied pieces 

 containing pollen, but the bees in the observatory would not touch 

 it, and when I saw brood and that the bees refused to eat the 

 pollen, I removed the comb altogether ; and I can positively aver, 

 that these 729 bees were reared with no other food than honey — 

 honey and honey alone is the food of the grub of the bee. Since 

 that time I have anxiously watched the parts of the hive where 

 bee bread has been deposited, and the matured bees during the 



