Of the Honey Harveft. 199 
a 
Neverthelefs it is evident, that a hive that 
has a great number of bees in autumn, ftands 
a 
ber to be all laid by one mother. Monfieur Reaumur fays, that 
the Queen will lay 200 in 24 hours ; bet I am perfuaded, that, 
in fome extraordinarily populous hives, fhe lays near double that 
number. She is acknowledged by all authors to be very proli- 
fic. Swammeavane beheld in the ovarium of a Queen bee, 
gt0o eggs at once; and Reaumur fays, that, “ in the {pace of 
* three weeks, 6000 bees are brought to perfeétion.” Nor, in- 
deed, is this at all incredible, when we confidet that fome cod 
fith have had no fewer than 95344,000 eggs in their ovarium at 
once. * The prolific powers of the Queen bee feem to depend 
very much on the ftate of the hive fhe belongs to; and lam 
apt to think, that the increafe of a hive fcarcely ever fails on 
her part, if fhe be ina healthy ftate, For, during the months 
of May, June, and July, all Queens breed furprifingly faft, if the 
weather is good, and if they have abundance of common bees 
tu rear the young brood. When one, therefore, has a hive, that, 
on account of the paucity of its inhabitants, does not breed faft, 
were he to add a great number of common bees to it in Summer, 
it would foon increafe as faft as any in his apiary. 
It mut, however, be allowed, that fome Queens will be more 
fruitful than others, although a hive feldom fuffers from that caufe 
alone. One fingle author alledges, that two or three Queens may 
be permitted to live for a fhort time in a hive, during the mid- 
dle of fummer, and that of courfe a greater number of eggs 
will be laid each day, than if there were but one Queen in 
the hive. But I am pretty confident, that this is a miitake ; 
for, among the many hundreds of fwarms, which I have driven 
out, I never faw more than one breeding Queen at atime. In- 
deed, perhaps, in one hive among fifty, I have obferved two 
Queens, 
* Nature delineated, p. 130. 
