SEPTEMBER 1). 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
373 
with good situation, will do. Mons. Huber mentions about 
three hundred bees as near the number in a strong nest; 
but the majority, particularly in a wet season, contain a 
much fewer number. The nest was found near the root of 
an old tree (in a wood) which had been cut down many 
years, and the combs were so placed, that any wet from 
them was drained into a large space of hollow ground 
beneath. Near the new nest, I found, in another compart¬ 
ment, the remains of a nest full of decayed combs of the 
previous year. I have no doubt that one of the females 
had issued from this and planted the colony in the same spot ! 
For three mornings following I visited the nest, and col¬ 
lected nearly two hundred stray workers, which were either 
lost in the bustle of disturbing the nest, or were out at 
work. However, I am indebted to this nest for my first ob¬ 
servation of tho wonderful habits of the males, and which 
was afterwards confirmed to me many hundred times. My 
garden was almost two miles from the nest, and having 
collected nearly the whole, excepting some few drones 
which escaped, I do not think any of the bees which 1 
brought home went back to the old nest. Next morning 
early, haviug opened the aperture in the wall where I had 
placed them, the bees sallied forth in the most cautious 
manner, each worker bee, as it came out, remaining on 
wing very near the entrance, on which it made the closest 
observation, going farther and farther until it took flight. 
About ten o’clock, when the sun became hot, several drones 
found their way out, and llew off without looking behind them, 
or making observation like the workers, and during the 
week nearly the whole of the males departed never to 
return. When talcing tho nest, I observed the same thing; 
those which escaped never returned, like the workers, to 
visit the spot. To test this, I took several other nests of the 
same species, and placed them in very small hives made 
by the shepherds, and found the same result. Within the 
first fourteen days after the drones and females are hatched 
they voluntarily depart, and commence searching for food 
for themselves, which they do until the end of September, 
or later, when they perish. Divine Wisdom has deprived 
them entirely of the power or faculty of returning to, or 
finding the nest; indeed, they make not the least obser¬ 
vation on their departure like the workers. The male bee 
of this species is a very handsome insect, and so unlike the 
worker, that it cannot be mistaken for it, being nearly all 
over of a light buff colour, with a black stripe on the back, 
excepting the abdomen, which is white. 
How wonderful is the provision of nature when we con¬ 
template it! These drones have the faculty of gathering 
honey, but for themselves alone, during their voluntary and 
necessary exile. 
We see plainly the finger of a superintending Providence 
in these minute points. The hive bee lives in a most 
powerful and numerous community, and expels its lazy 
drones (which are of entirely different habits) by force, 
after their term of usefulness in the hive is past; but the 
humble bee, a more inoffensive character, docile, and very 
tractable, exists in a very small habitation, with numbers too 
few to act offensively; and Infinite Wisdom has provided the 
males of each of these species with the full inclination and 
instinct to leave the nest once, but without the power, 
or faculty of returning to annoy the workers any more, 
and this perpetual and voluntary banishment is accom¬ 
panied by the power of subsisting by its own industry on 
the flowers while they last.* In the evenings of each day 
they hide themselves in warm places. The early part of the 
day is spent by the drones in getting a little honey; they 
then employ themselves in making visits, a round of which is 
continued for a couple of hours, or more, to particular 
spots, trees, bushes, &c., generally within a few hundred 
yards from their deserted habitation. It was after long ob¬ 
servation I discovered “ drone haunts.” After due con¬ 
sideration, I firmly believe it is ordered by the “ Great 
Architect of the universe,” that these extraordinary move¬ 
ments are to compensate them for their voluntary banish- 
* When the drones are ready to leave the nest, the queens are hatched. 
•I am indebted to a friend of mine, W. II. L. Wolcott, Esq., of Clifton, 
for a very good explanation of the vagabond drones, which make such 
extraordinary rounds, and which puzzled me for many years to find out. 
Mr. W. says that those drones arc the unfortunate ones which have not 
been mated with queens, there being but a small proportion of them 
wanted for this purpose. 
ment, and is intended to occupy their time, instead of their 
resting in the nest. I am willing to prove this curious fact 
to any naturalist in the months of July and August. Each 
species has different haunts and modes of showing these 
flights, which 1 will explain in my description of the three 
other species. For four or five summers, I never had less 
than half a-dozen nests of the A. lucorum and terrestris in 
my garden; these were brought a full mile from the 
original nests. I watched the progress of each, and par¬ 
ticularly the hatching of their beautiful drones, and in¬ 
variably saw them depart within a few days after without 
making the smallest observation of the place. I never saw 
one return, nor any male make its exit, in connexion with a 
female. My colonies of these bees were one or two, always 
in an old wall; several in very small hives made of coarse 
rushes or straw by the shepherds in the neighbourhood; 
and some in a warm place in their own soil—the earth; 
these last always did the best in a dry summer. The combs 
and bees were placed in their wooden boxes, such as are 
used by druggists, and when they became settled the boxes 
were removed, and a covering placed over to prevent the 
dirt falling in on them. The difficulty in the ground is in 
wet weather, to drain the place properly ; for the wild bees 
are in general most judicious on this point in their natural 
state; they usually choose loose ground where the water 
sinks below their combs. This species of bee is the only 
one which interferes much with the hive bee in “ choice of 
flowers.” In 1811, I remember well seeing some hundreds 
of the A. lucorum and terrestris on some lime-trees in full 
blossom, and many remained until it was so dark, that they 
could not find their way home; so delicious and intoxicating 
a blossom is the lime. In the morning (in consequence of 
a storm in the night) I found some dozens of these workers 
in a torpid state which had fallen on the ground, and I 
amused myself for some time in recovering them, for 
I have been able to catch this, and all the species, with my 
naked hand without being stung. 
The most determined enemy to these bees are the field 
mice, which destroy more than two-thirds of them all over 
England. Near villages and small towns, I have found their 
nests more numerous, which I attribute to the number of 
cats which destroy the mice. Another enemy is a cater¬ 
pillar, which gets into the outer-coating of the combs of the 
A. terrestris, and destroys the nest, if not discovered and 
killed. Each species of wild bee has its own peculiar mode 
of going its round in fine weather; some near the ground, 
others through hedges, trees, shrubs, <fcc. 
(To be continued.) 
CONSTRUCTION OF GREENHOUSES 
AND PITS. 
I A3i tempted to send you an account of some experi¬ 
ments and contrivances which I have lately been under¬ 
taking with respect to the construction of greenhouses and 
pits. My first point is in connection with glass; the second, 
concerning a mode of heating. I have just had some small 
pits erected, and warmed by hot water, and, in order to add 
to their efficiency, I have had them double-glazed ; that is, 
there is a layer of glass, then a stratum of air, then a second 
layer of glass, so that between the two frames of glass 
is enclosed a stratum of air, which is a non conducting 
medium, and therefore calculated, I believe, to add much to 
the warmth of the pit. 1 glaze with small glass, 10-oz., six 
inches by four inches, which I can purchase for Id. per foot, 
consequently the layer of glass is actually as cheap as a 
bass mat, which it is intended to supersede, i.e., a bass mat 
of the size of two-light, or six feet by four feet, costs Is. (id., 
and lasts a season; the glass is 2s., and lasts for years, and 
tho time saved in covering and uncovering will be soon 
equal to the odd sixpence, added to which, my plants will 
have daylight as soon and as long as daylight exists. ’1 he 
mechanism for double-glazing will be easily contrived by 
one for themselves; mine is thus accomplished—a small 
rabbit is sunk in the stile into which the glass rests; a 
layer of putty is spread over, and then a lath screwed over 
it. The under glazing is flush, and does not overlap—is not 
imbricated, as we say in botany. 
With regard to the second notion—I have as yet only 
