PHYSIOLOGY. 65 



the bees are always in winter, colder in new comb than in 

 old. Inventors of hives have too often been, most emphati- 

 cally " men of one idea :" and that one, instead of being a 

 well established and important fact in the physiology of the 

 bee, has frequently, (like the necessity for a yearly change 

 of the brood combs,) been merely a conceit, existing no- 

 where but in the brain of a visionary projector. This is all 

 harmless enough, until an effort is made to impose such mis- 

 erable crudities upon an ignorant public, either in the shape 

 of a patented hive, or worse still, of an unpatented hive, 

 the pretended eight to use which, is fraudulently sold to 

 the cheated purchaser ! ! 



For want of proper knowledge with regard to the age of 

 bees, huge " bee palaces," and large closets in garrets or 

 attics, have been constructed, and their proprietors have 

 vainly imagined that the bees would fill them, however 

 roomy ; for they can see no reason why a colony should 

 not continue to increase indefinitely, until at length it num- 

 bers its inhabitants by millions or billions ! As the bees 

 can never at one time equal, still less exceed the number 

 which the queen is capable of producing in one season, 

 these spacious dwellings have always an abundance of 

 "spare rooms." It seems strange that men can be thus 

 deceived, when often in their own Apiary, they have heal- 

 thy stocks which have not swarmed for a year or more, and 

 which yet in the spring are not a whit more populous than 

 those which have regularly parted with vigorous swarms. 



It is certain that the Creator, has for some wise reason, 

 set a limit to the increase of numbers in a single colony ; 

 and I shall venture to assign what appears to me to have 

 been one reason for His so doing. Suppose that He had 

 given to the bee, a length of life as great as that of the 

 horse or the cow, or had made each queen capable of lay- 

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