172 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OE INSECTS. 



says that in winter, during frosts, the bees remain in a torpid 

 state. He must mean severe frosts ; for Huber relates an in- 

 stance, when upon a sudden emergency the bees of one of 

 his hives set themselves to work in the middle of January ; 

 and he observes that they are so little torpid in winter, that 

 even when the thermometer abroad is below the freezing 

 point, it stands high in populous hives. Swammerdam, and 

 after him the two authors last quoted, found that sometimes, 

 even in the middle of winter, hives have young brood in them, 

 which the bees feed and attend to. 1 In an instance of this 

 kind, which fell under the eye of Huber, the thermometer 

 stood in the hive at about 92°. In colder climates, however, 

 the bees will probably be less active in the winter. They are 

 then generally situated between the combs towards their 

 lower part. But when the air grows milder, especially if the 

 rays of the sun fall upon the hive and warm it, they awake 

 from their lethargy, shake their wings, and begin to move 

 and recover their activity ; with which their wants returning, 

 they then feed upon the stock of honey and bee-bread which 

 they have in reserve. The lowest cells are first uncovered, 

 and their contents consumed ; the highest are reserved to the 

 last. The honey in the lowest cells being collected in the 

 autumn, probably will not keep so well as the vernal. 



The degree of heat in a hive in winter, as I have just 

 hinted, is great. A thermometer near one, in the open air, 

 that stood in January at 6§° below the freezing point, upon 

 the insertion of the bulb a little way into the hive rose to 

 22 J° above it ; and could it have been placed between the 

 combs, where the bees themselves were agglomerated, the 

 mercury, Reaumur conjectures, would have risen as high as 

 it does abroad in the warm days in summer. 2 Huber says 

 that it stands in frost at 86° and 88° in populous hives. 3 

 In May, the former author found in a hive in which he 

 had lodged a small swarm, that the thermometer indicated a 



1 January 11. 1818. My bees were out, and very alert this day. The 

 thermometer stood abroad in the shade at 51^°. When the sun shone there was 

 quite a cluster of them at the mouth of the hives, and great numbers were 

 buzzing about in the air before them. 



2 v. 671. 3 i. 354. note *. 



