110 APPENDIX. 



ble suspension in the development of brood in this time, there cannot be a doubt about it, 

 where the hive is circumscribed (whether sideways or downwards) ; but if he would have 

 us believe that the queen so relaxes in her laying of eggs, as almost to discontinue them 

 towards the latter part of June, and the most part of July, I think he is mistaken . The 

 queen, I believe, finds no sadden disinclination to perform the office of a mother; it is a 

 gradual process on her part; she continues to lay, during that period, with undiminishing 

 energy perhaps as the season advanced, and certainly with greater good will and capability 

 than in August and September. The truth, however, is, that, lay as actively as she may^, 

 she is unable to deposit her eggs in cells, owing to want of room.- Every cell is, at this 

 season, required for storing honey ; therefore, if she does not swarm, (in which case Bhe at 

 once effectively resumes her office, and as fast and so long as comb is built downwards, 

 she fills every available cell with brood,*) she lays her eggs at random, and there is what is 

 called a cessation or a relaxation in her laying ; that is, a perceptible diminution in the 

 quantity of brood comb, and bees hatched, until honey begins to come in more sparingly, 

 when the cells again become empty, and the queen resumes her comfortable deposit of eggs 

 in them. This I believe to be the course with all small hives in general. It does not mend 

 the matter to supply room above ; for, where the bees begin their works from the roof of 

 the store room downwards, the queen very rarely ascends, as she is loth to quit her hold of 

 comb, and there is none to connect the new with the old works, so as to tempt her up, if 

 she were disposed to come. And again, where the bees work upwards^ as they often do, 

 the comb is occupied with honey as fast as it is constructed, because it is an instinct of the 

 bees to store their food high up in the hive ; for which reason, as a saving of labor and ma- 

 terial, they usually build drone comb. Not only so ; the queen, equally obeying an instinct 

 of her own, prefers to remain as near the hive entrance ; that is, as low down, as possible, 

 whence she loses the opportunity, if opportunity there be, which may happen to be afforded her. 

 Often have I observed a queen bee, about the middle of June, when every comb was more 

 or less filled with honey or brood, after perambulating the hive, stand on the edge of a comb, 

 and lay egg after egg, which were devoured by bees as fast as they issued from her body. 

 Now will anybody assert, that, if the queen had had plenty of empty comb in which to de- 

 posit these eggs, during the next six weeks, strength of population in one year, would not 

 beget a proportionate strength in another, especially after a mild winter, followed by an 

 early spring? Would there not have been many more bees hatched, which would survive 

 the perils and losses of autumn ; and increase, therefore, the winter temperature of thehive, 

 and so promote the earlier breeding in spring 1 It stands to reason that there would. It is 

 for this reason, that an argument in favor of large hives will, I think, be found in the ac- 

 knowledged fact, " that dry seasons produce most honey, wet ones most swarms." For 

 what does this prove, bnt that the little honey collected in the fields has enabled the queen 

 to deposit more eggs in the cells, (and at such times she will breed largely evert in a super,) 

 so that the population has increased so much the more rapidly, and with inconvenience to 

 the bees ? on which account they seize the first favorable moment to be off. 



Now let us take the case of the deep Polish hive of Mr. Dobiogost, The bees of course 

 are huddled close together near the top, in the depth of winter; there they first clear 

 the comb of whatever honey may be stored in it, and there the queen begins to lay. 

 The shape of the hive near the top is admirably suited to the diminished size of the 

 population, although, I shall presently show, they are, in proportion, much more numerous 



* And she generally anticipates them here, occupying each cell with an egg as fast as it 

 is constructed, before the bees can put honey into it. 



