1 62 Mr. Hunter's Observations on Bees. 
hive. To prove this, I confined some bees in a small hive, and 
fed them with honey for some days ; and the moment I let 
them out, they flew, and threw out their excrement in large 
quantities ; and therefore, in the winter, I presume, they retain 
the contents of their bowels for a considerable time : indeed, 
when we consider their confinement in the winter, and that 
they have no place to deposite their excrement, we can hardly 
account for the whole of this operation in them. Their excre- 
ment is of a yellow colour, and according to their confinement 
it is found higher and higher up in the intestine, almost as 
high as the crop. 
Their life at this season of the year is more uniform, and may 
be termed simple existence, till the warm weather arrives again. 
As they now subsist on their summer’s industry, they would 
seem to feed in proportion to the coldness of the season; for 
from experiment, I found the hive grow lighter in a cold 
week, than it did in a warmer, which led to further experi- 
ments. I first made an experiment upon a bee hive, to ascer- 
tain the quantity of honey lost through the winter. The hive 
was put into the scale November the 3d, 1776. 
oz. 
drams 
November 10th it had lost 
2 
7 
17th 
4 
24th 
3 
December 1st 
8 
2 
8th 
2 
1 
15th 
5 
2 
22d 
4 
3 
29th 
5 
4 
1777. January 1st * 
2 
5 
