Mr. Hunter’s Observations on Bees. 193 
that the old breed the whole of this season’s breeding, and 
then die, and those that continue through the winter are the 
young; and if so, then they follow the same course with 
their progenitors. 
The comb of a hive may be said to be the furniture and 
storehouse of the bees, which by use wear out ; and from the 
description I have given, it will appear that the comb in time 
will be rendered unfit for use. I observed, that they did not 
clean out the excrement of the maggot, and that the maggot, 
before it moved into the chrysalis state, lined the cell with a 
silk, similar to many other insects. It lines the whole cell, top, 
sides, and bottom ; the two last are permanent ; and at the 
bottom it covers with this lining its own excrement. * Why 
the bee maggot is formed to do this, is, probably, because ho- 
ney afterwards is to be put into this cell ; so that the honey is 
laid into this last silken bag. How often they may breed in 
the same cell I do not know, but I have known them three 
times in the same season ; each time the excrement has been 
accumulating, and the cell has been lined three times with silk. 
From this account we must see that a cell, in time, will be so 
far filled up as to render it unfit for breeding. On separating 
the lining of silk, which is easiest done at the bottom, on ac- 
count of the dried excrement between each lining, I have 
counted above twenty different linings in one cell, and found 
the cell about one quarter, or one third, filled up : when such 
a cell, or a piece of comb with such cells, is steeped in water, so 
as to soften the excrement between the linings, they are sepa- 
* This neither the wasp nor hornet do, although they do not clean out the excre- 
ment of their maggots. 
MDCCXCII. C C 
