bee-keeper's manual. 77 



the locality, since the numbers of bees will always admit 

 of generating the proper degree of heat ; but when a 

 few workers exist, comparatively speaking, the case is' 

 widely different. I have often noticed this circum- 

 stance ; but a particular instance of this nature has 

 very recently come under my observation. In driving 

 a very small swarm into another hive, for the reason, 

 that there were not bees enough to winter over safely, 

 I found in cutting out the combs, a laying in the middle 

 of the centre comb, about as large as the top of a tea- 

 cup, and about as circular. In the centre were the 

 nymphs or crysalis sealed over ; and on the outside of 

 these, were larvae three or four days old ; and exterior 

 to these were larvae just bursting their shrouds from the 

 egg ; and exterior to these were the eggs that had just 

 been deposited. If a needle had been run through the 

 cells of the aforesaid nymphs, larvas and eggs, it would 

 have passed through cells on the opposite side, contain- 

 ing nymphs, larvae and eggs of precisely the same age ! 

 This is only another evidence of the remarkable instinct 

 of the bee ! The nymphs requiring more heat than 

 larvae three or four days old ; and the larvae of this age, ' 

 requiring more heat than eggs, how wisely does the bee 

 arrange her broods to the best advantage ! In this hive, in 

 which the combs were built, there were not bees enough 

 to allow the least heat to be wasted ; and when a cluster 

 of bees is huddled together on one side of a comb, the 

 heat produced is much greater, by Jiaving a corres- 

 ponding number of bees clustered directly opposite. 

 Could human ingenuity devise a better way of economy, 



