394 BREADTH OF THE COMBS. 



of the common bee, which breadth may be reckoned at the 

 utmost to be one inch and three-quarters. We have known 

 the side combs to measure two inches and a half, and in one 

 instance they measured two inches and three-quarters ; but 

 a comb of eight inches in breadth would be a direct pheno- 

 menon, nor could it be adapted to that use for which the 

 larger combs are constructed. Huber himself, in the con- 

 struction of his leaf hive, allows only one inch four lines for 

 the thickness of his combs, and he allows of eight combs or 

 leaves in his hive. The entire breadth of his hives does not 

 exceed one foot and a half : supposing, however, the combs to 

 be eight inches in breadth, according to his own observation, 

 and allowing eight combs in a hive, we should have a breadth, 

 allowing the third of an inch between each comb, of five feet 

 ten inches, or nearly two yards. 



The height of Huber's hive is from fourteen to fifteen 

 inches ; that of the straw hive, generally in use in this country, 

 is from ten to twelve inches ; but it is on record, that Huber 

 observed his bees construct a comb twenty-seven inches long 

 in twenty-four hours, consequently the hive to contain the 

 combs of that dimension must be nearly a yard in height. 

 In every case that has come under our inspection, when we 

 have examined the combs constructed by the bees in the 

 roofs of houses, or in hollow trees, in which an unlimited 

 space was allowed them to extend their combs, they never 

 exceeded twelve inches in length. It is a false notion, that 

 if an unlimited space be given to the bees in which to carry 

 on their works, that they will gradually and annually ex- 

 tend them ; on the contrary, they appear to know well the 

 limits to which they ought to go, and beyond which, they 

 can never trespass. 



In numerous instances, not only in this country, but in 

 the forests of Poland and the Ukraine, where bees are not 

 domesticated, but take up their abode in the trunks of trees, 

 we have invariably remarked, that great as the space may be 



