A P 
of bee-bread. We may guefs that they confume a great 
deal of this fubftance in food by the quantity collected; 
which, by computation, may in fome hives, amount to an 
hundred weight in a feafon, whilft the real wax in fuch an 
hive does not perhaps exceed two pounds. 
Honey is originally a juice digefted in plants, which 
fweats through their pores, and chiefly in their flowers, 
or is contained in refervoirs in which nature (fores it. The 
bees fometimes penetrate into thefe (fores, and at other 
times find the liquor exuded. This they colled! in their 
ftomachs ; fo that, when loaded with it, they feem, to an 
inattentive eye, to come home without any booty at all. 
When the bees have colledled their honey, the inftant 
they return home, they feek the cells in which they may 
difgorge and depolit their loads. They have two forts of 
(tores: one which confifts of honey laid up for the winter ; 
and the other of honey intended for accidental ufe in cafe 
of bad weather* and for fuch bees as do not go abroad in 
fearch of it. Their method of fecuring each of thefe is 
different. They have in each cell a thicker fubftance, 
which is placed over the honey, to prevent its running out 
of the cell; and that fubftance is raifed gradually as the 
cell is filled, till the bees, finding that the cell cannot con¬ 
tain any more, clofe it with a covering of wax, not to be 
opened till times of want, or during the winter. 
When the bees firft fettle in fwarming, indeed w'hen they 
at any time reft themfelves, there is fomething very par¬ 
ticular in their method of taking their repofe. It is done 
by collecting themfelves together in a heap, and hanging 
to each other by their feet. They fometimes extend thefe 
heaps to a confiderable length. It would feem probable 
to us, that the bees from w'hich the others hang muft have 
a confiderable weight fufpended to them. All that can 
be faid is, that the bees muft find this to be a fituation 
agreeable to themfelves. They may perhaps have a me¬ 
thod of diftending themfelves with air, thereby to leffen 
their fpecific gravity; in the fame manner as fifties do, in 
order to alter their gravity compared with water. Their 
vigilance to counteract depredation or furprife from a fo¬ 
reign enemy, is highly deferving our admiration. Even 
during their repofe, they plant centinels at the mouth of 
the hive, to prevent infects of any kind from getting in. 
But if a fnail, or other large infedt, (hould get in, notwith- 
ftanding all refiftance they fting it to death ; and then co¬ 
ver it over with a coat of propolis, to prevent the bad fmell 
or maggots which might proceed from the putrefaction of 
fuch a large animal. Bees feem alfo to be forewarned of 
the appearance of bad weather by fome particular feeling. 
It fometimes happens, even when they are afiiduous and 
bufy, that they on a hidden ceafe from their work ; not a 
fingle one ftirs out; and thofe that are abroad hurry home 
in fuch prodigious crowds, that the doors of their habita¬ 
tions are too (mail to admit them. It is alleged, that no 
bee is ever caught even in what we call a hidden fhower, 
unlefs it has been at a very great diftance from the hive, 
or has been before injured by fome accident, or be fickly 
and unable to fly fo faft as the reft. As to the age of bees, 
the large drones live but a little while, being deftroyed 
without mercy fo foon as the office of impregnating the 
queen bee is performed. Writers are not agreed as to the 
age of the working bees. Some maintain that they are an¬ 
nual, and others fuppofe that they live many years. 
It has been generally fuppofed, that tire queen-bee is 
the only female contained in the hive; and that the work¬ 
ing bees are neutral, or of neither fex. But M. Schirach 
has lately eftablifhed a different dodtrine, which has been 
alfo confirmed by the later obfervations of Mr. Debraw, 
of Cambridge. According to M. Schirach, all the work¬ 
ing or common bees are females in difguife; and the queen 
bee lays only two kinds of eggs, viz. thofe which are to 
produce the drones, and thofe from which the working 
bees are to proceed: and from any one or more 1 of thefe, 
one or more queens may be produced; fo that every worm 
of the latter or common kind, which has been hatched 
about three days, is capable, under certain circumftanccs. 
i b. 795 
of becoming the queen, or mother, of a hive. Tn proof 
of this dodtrine, new and Angular as it may feem, he al¬ 
leges a number of fadsfadtory and decifive experiments, 
which have been fince verified by thofe of Mr. Debraw. 
In the early months of the fpring, and in any preceding 
month, even fo late as November, hie cut off from an old 
hive a piece of that part of the comb which contains the 
eggs of the working bees; taking care, however, that it 
contained likewife worms which had been hatched about 
three days. He fixed this in an empty hive, or box, to¬ 
gether with a portion of honey-comb, &c. or, in other 
words, with a fufficiency of food and building materials, 
or wax, for the ufe of the intended colony. He then put 
into, and confined within, the fame box, afufficient num¬ 
ber of common working bees, taken from the fame or any 
other hive. As foon as the members of this (mall com-, 
munity found themfelves' deprived of their liberty, and 
wdthout a queen, a dreadful uproar enfued, which conti¬ 
nued generally, with fome (liort intervals of filence, for 
the fpace of about twenty-four hours; during which time 
it is to be fuppofed they were alternately meditating and 
holding council on the future fupport of the new repub¬ 
lic. On the final ceffation of this tumult, the general and 
almoft con (hint refult was, that they betook themfelves to 
work ; firft proceeding to the conftrudticn of a royal cell, 
and then taking the proper mcafures for hatching and feed¬ 
ing the brood inclofed within them. Sometimes, even on 
the fecond day the foundations of one or more royal cells 
w'ere to be perceived; the view' of which furnifhed cer¬ 
tain indications that they had elected one of the inclofed 
worms to the fovereignty. The final refult of this expe¬ 
riment is, that the colony of working bees thus (hut up, 
with a model of common brood, not only hatch it, but 
are found, at the end of eighteen or twenty days, to have 
produced from thence one or two queens; w'hich have ap¬ 
parently proceeded from worms of the common fort, 
pitched upon by them for that purpofe ; and which, un¬ 
der other circumftances, that is, if they had remained in 
the old hive, there is reufon to fuppofe would have been 
changed into common working bees. In the prefent in- 
ftanee, the common worm appears to be converted by them 
into a queen bee, merely becaufe the hive was in want of 
one. Hence we may juftly infer, that the kingdom of the 
bees is not, if the expreflion may be ufed, a jure divino, or 
hereditary monarchy, but an eledtive kingdom ; in which 
the choice of their future ruler is made by the body of 
the people, while (he is yet in the cradle, or in embryo; 
and who are determined by motives of preference which 
will perhaps for ever elude the penetration of the mod 
fagacious naturalifts. 
The conclufions drawn by M. Schirach, from experi¬ 
ments of the preceding kind, often repeated by himfelf 
and others with the fame fuccefs, are, that all the com¬ 
mon or working bees w ere originally of the female fex; 
but that, when they have undergone their laft melamor- 
phofis, they are condemned to a (late of perpetual virgi¬ 
nity, and the organs of generation are obliterated ; merely 
becaufe they have not been lodged, fed, and brought up, 
in a particular manner, while they were in the worm (late. 
He fuppofes that the worm, defigned by the community 
to be a queen, or mother, owes its metamorphofis into a 
queen, partly to the extraordinary fize of its cell, and its 
peculiar pofition in it; but principally to a certain appro¬ 
priate nouriftunent found there, and carefully adminiftered 
to it by the working bees while it was in the worm (late; 
by which, and pollibly other means unknown, the deve- 
lopement and extenfton of the germ of the female organs, 
previoufly exifting in the embryo, is effected; and thofe 
differences in its form and fize are produced, which after¬ 
wards fo remai kablv diftinguifh it from the common work¬ 
ing bees. This difeovery is capable of being applied to¬ 
wards forming artificial (warms, or new colonies of bees, 
by which means their number might be increafed, and 
their produce in honey and wax proportionably augmented. 
The annexed Plate will in fome meafure exhibit the 
(ini dfu rtf 
