MAXIMUM OF THE TEMPERATURE OF A HIVE. 327 



which he says, and says truly, is a heat intolerable to bees, 

 and which puts them into such a profuse perspiration, the 

 globules of which he has seen on their bodies, that they are 

 then obliged to rush out of the hive for the mere purpose 

 of respiration. It is, however, worthy of remark, that in 

 proportion as we profess to advance in the knowledge of 

 the bee, we find ourselves the deeper entangled in contradic- 

 tions and paradoxes ; at one time we. find a certain statement 

 promulgated on the basis of ocular observation, and im- 

 mediately afterwards, we find the same statement refuted 

 and denied on the same principle of personal experience. 

 The maximum of the heat of a hive as laid down by Huber, 

 viz. 104°, may be considered as a temperature which a hive 

 seldom attains in this country ; but strange to say, about the 

 year 1833, a person of the name of Nutt uprose amongst 

 the apiarians of this country, who, in despite of the 

 authority of Huber, was bold enough to advance the extra- 

 ordinary doctrine that the temperature of a hive previously 

 to swarming is as high as 130°. If now a temperature of 

 104° according to Huber be intolerable to bees, what must 

 be an additional temperature of 26°? Tallow melts at a 

 temperature of 127°; bees' wax at 142°, in what state then 

 must the combs of a hive be at a temperature three degrees 

 above that at which tallow melts ? They must be in a state 

 of almost positive fusion, and utterly incapable of being 

 applied to those purposes for which they were made. Mr. 

 Nutt, to whom temperature and ventilation are what retarded 

 impregnation is to Huber, affirms that a hive at a tempera- 

 ture of 140° is at its maximum of perfection; in contradic- 

 tion to which we affirm that a hive at that temperature is at 

 its maximum of ruination. 



Speaking of the effect of the change of temperature of a 



hive, Mr. Duncan says, (page 83,) " A sudden change of 



weather about the end of autumn, from a mild temperature 



to a raw frost, has such an immediate effect on the brood, 



p 4 



