March 5, ifcW. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
195 
and the one on the opposite side from the observer opened. His 
great object was to prove Huber’s discoveries accurate. 
The hive was tenanted in the summer of 1819, which appears 
to have been a favourable one for bees ; but “ the bees perished 
from the intense cold of the 1st January, 1820,” for which Mr. 
Dunbar was sorry, as he intended to have made the hive a study 
during the spring and summer, watching “ the whole process 
alf ovo till the final emigration of the superfluous population.” In 
order to remedy the misfortune he started the well-provisioned 
hive on the 25th March for further observations, but I am not in 
possession of them. The following, however, are those he made 
in 1819 
Observation 1.—When the bees were put into the unicomb 
hive in June last they, of course, instantly began building comb ; 
but the narrow limits of their new abode being only 1 inch and 
two-thirds between the glasses prevented any considerable number 
of them from working at the top. A large portion of them, there¬ 
fore, began a comb in the stick which crosses the hive in the 
middle (see plate vi. fig. 6), and thus two combs were going on at 
once, which eventually became one when the upper half reached 
down to the stick. It appeared, however, that there was still a 
want of room and of employment for these'willing and industrious 
labourers, for to my surprise a portion of them began a comb on 
the upper side of the cross stick, and, contrary to their natural 
mode of proceeding, wrought upwards, so that in four days or less 
the upper comb and this middle piece met, and the whole separate 
parts were joined and became one square. 
2, When the queen is about to lay an egg she puts her head into 
a cell and remains in that position a second or two to ascertain 
whether it be fit to receive the deposit; she then withdraws her 
head, curves her body downwards, inserts her tail into the cell, and 
having kept this position for a few seconds turns half round on 
herself, and after laying the eggs withdraws her body. 
3, When the queen lays a cluster of eggs to the number of 
thirty or forty, more or less, on one side of the comb, instead of 
laying in all the empty cells in the same quarter, she leaves it and 
goes to the other side, and lays in the cells which are directly 
opposite to those she has just supplied with eggs, and in none else. 
In this order she seems to be scrupulously exact, and probably it is 
to ascertain whether there be an egg in the opposite cell that she 
keeps her head inserted previous to laying, longer than would be 
necessary merely to find whether the one she is inspecting be empty. 
This mode of proceeding is of a piece with that wise arrangement 
which runs through all the operations of the bees, and is another 
effect of that remarkable instinct by which they are guided, for as 
they cluster closely in those parts of the comb which are filled with 
brood in order to hatch them, the heat will penetrate to the other 
side, and some part of it would be wasted if the cells on that side 
were altogether empty or filled with honey, but when both sides 
are filled with brood, and covered with live bees, the heat is con¬ 
fined to the spot where it is necessary, and is turned to full account 
in hatching the young. Part of the comb was filled with brood, 
the rest of the square being all sealed honey. On the opposite 
side the brood comb was exactly of the same shape, insomuch that 
on the narrowest inspection I could not discern one cell where 
there was brood in the one and honey in the opposite. 
4, The shade round the brood comb is designed to represent 
cells filled with a mixture of farina and honey for nourishing the 
young, and which I saw often carried to them by the older bees. 
Where the brood [cells covered a considerable surface these store 
cells were in three rows, as represented in the figure. Where 
they were of less extent there were two rows and at the neck of 
the figure only one, thus preserving a due proportion between the 
quantity of the food and the extent of the brood cells. 
5, When a bee arrives loaded with farina, which is now known 
to constitute the principal ingredient in the food of the young 
bees while in a maggot state, she searches for a cell in which she 
may deposit her burden, and having found one she fixes her two 
middle and two hind legs on the edge of it, and curving her body,, 
seizes the farina with her forelegs, and makes it drop into the cell,, 
after which she hurries away to renew the labours, while another 
bee inserts her head into the cell and packs it properly, probably 
mixing, as may be judged from the moist state in which it appears- 
on her retiring, a little honey with it. 
0, It was ascertained by Huber that wax is the produce of 
saccharine part of the honey, and that it exudes from the bodies- 
of the bees between the rings of their bellies in the form of small- 
thin scales. In confirmation of this fact I saw one bee, and only 
one, in the very act of squeezing out thin scales of very pure wax 
from the rings of her belly. She retreated from my view before I 
could discern her after proceedings. 
7, I observed the queen at one time hard pressed to get quit of 
her egg, and not being able to find a cell readily, she dropped it on- 
the edge of one, when half a dozen bees, like so many dogs after a 
bone, instantly ran to it and devoured it. 
8, In the honey months of July and August, when the weather 
is very fine, the bees form comb intended for containing honey 
alone, and different from that which is destined for brood. The- 
texture of this is much thinner, the cells considerably larger and 
deeper, and as the honey is then in the hot season of a rarer and 
more fluid quality, these cells are wisely made with a much greater- 
dip or inclination than the ordinary ones that there may be less- 
risk of the liquid running over before it is sealed. 
9, It has been often said that the queen is attended in her 
progress through the hive by a number of her subjects formed in 
a circle round her, and these have, of course, the guards of royalty.. 
The truth is her majesty has no attendants, strictly speaking, but 
wherever she moves the bees she meets with in her progress 
instantly clear the way for her, and all turning their heads towards 
her, fawn upon her (if I may use the expression), lavish their 
caresses upon her, touching her softly with their antennse, and this 
appearance has given rise to the idea that she is attended by guards _ 
The moment she has passed a circle of her admiring subjects they 
instantly resume their labours and she passes on, receiving frona 
every cluster in her way the homage due to a mother and queen. 
Such are the few observations I made during the first season- 
my hive was at work. You have the simple facts as they were 
noticed at the time without any embellishment, for if they add 
little of importance to what is already known of the nature and 
habits of the bee they owe nothing to the colourings of fancy. If 
you think them worth sending to the “ Edinburgh Philosophical 
Journal ” you are at perfect liberty to do so, and I hope one goodi 
effect of their publication will be to induce others also to con¬ 
tribute their mite of information. I am myself an enthusiast in- 
the cause ; nobody can study them closely without becoming so.- 
Fortunately I have a reverend brother in my neighbourhood whose- 
enthusiasm equals mine, and whose experience is much greater. I 
allude to the gentleman whose humane method of saving the lives-- 
of these insects has been made honourable mention of in a recent 
number of that Journal. If he, and such as he, could be prevailed 
on to communicate the result of their experience to the public the- 
natural history of the bee would be better understood and its- 
cultivation much more profitable.—Applegarth Manse, March 27th;. 
1820. 
I have omitted the introduction and explanation of plates, these- 
also omitted, of a most interesting article, as much to-day as it was 
when conveyances were slow and few, and postal communication 
slow and uncertain. A better written article on the subject has 
perhaps never appeared, while the unicomb hive his observations- 
were made from has been but little, if any, improved upon. 
Dead Bees. 
I am in receipt of letters from different bee-keepers who haver 
been giving the Lanarkshire hive a trial. Mr. Stevenson Hamilton 
says, “ With the exception of the Lanarkshire hive, which is healthy 
and no dead bees, all my others have great bins of dead at the 
front, and the bees are busy carrying out dead ones, white moulded. 
