324 
NATURAL HISTORY, 
tbe old hive, she always undergoes the fate of the former. 
However, it must be observed, that the bees never sacrifice 
any of their queens, when the hive is full of wax and honey ; 
for there is at that time, no danger in maintaining a plural- 
ity of breeders. 
When the swarm is thus conducted to a place of rest, and 
the policy of government is settled, the bees soon resume 
their former labours. The making cells, storing them with 
honey, impregnating the queen, making proper cells for the 
reception of the rising progeny, and protecting them from 
external danger, employ their unceasing industry. But soon 
after, and towards the latter end of summer, when the colony 
is sufficiently stored with inhabitants, a most cruel policy 
ensues. The drone bees, which are (as has been said) 
generally in a hive, to the number of a hundred, are marked 
for slaughter. These, which had hitherto led a life of indo- 
lence and pleasure, whose only employment was in impreg- 
nating the queen, and rioting upon the labours of the hive, 
without aiding in the general toil, now share the fate of most 
voluptuaries, and fall a sacrifice to the general resentment 
of society. 
When a hive sends out several swarms in the year, the first 
is always the best, and the most numerous. These having 
the whole summer before them, have the more time for mak- 
ing wax and honey, and consequently their labours are the 
most valuable to the proprietor. Although the swarm chiefly 
consists of the youngest bees, yet it is often found, that bees 
of all ages compose the multitude of emigrants, and it often 
happens, that bees of all ages are seen remaining behind. 
The number of them is always more considerable than that of 
some populous cities, for sometimes upwards of forty thousand 
are found in a single hive. So large a body may be well sup- 
posed to work with great expedition ; and in fact, in less than 
twenty-four hours, they will makecombsabove twenty inches 
long, and seven or eight broad. Sometimes they will half 
fill their hives with wax in less than five days. In the first 
fifteen days, they are always found to make more wax than 
they do afterwards during the rest, of the year. 
A farm, or a country, may be over-stocked with bees; as 
with any other sort of animal ; fora certain number of hives 
always require a certain number of flowers to subsist on. 
When the flowers near home are rifled, then are these indus- 
trious insects seen taking more extensive ranges, but their 
abilities may be over-taxed ; and if they are obliged, in quest 
of honey, to go too far from home, they are over-wearied in 
the pursuit, they are devoured by birds, or beaten down by 
the winds and rain. 
