80 THE HISTORY OF BEES. 
ed with common Bees, and ready to fend forth new co 
lonies or fwarms, before thefe are in being. How then 
is this poflible? I with thefe wife and penetrating gentle- 
men had better inftruétcd us, and let us into the profound 
myftery, and told us how, or by what fecret and cunning 
art they contributed fo abundantly towards the lives of 
others, fo many months before they had received any of 
their own. At that time, and all that time they 
were mere nullity, non-entities, and had no power of 
acting.* How highly, how infinitely obliging to the 
world, had but thefe miracle-mongers communicated 
their No/frum to others, laying fo great a myftery open 
to mankind, which now muft remain juft as it was. 
Again I objet, it is as univerfally known, that the 7 
Drones are entirely expelled the end of Ful, or the 
following month, and yet the Bees continue their breed- 
ing thro’ Auguft, September, and part of Odober, if tie 
feafon is encouraging. ) 
In one hive, which I took at AZichaelmas- -day laft, I 
found. confiderable numbers of young brood in feveral 
combs in different degrees of perfection (tho’ all of them 
clofe fealed up ;) fome maggots, fome nymphs, and others 
perfect in all their parts, ready to make their publick ap- 
pearance, or actually difcharging themfelves from the 
difagreeable confinement. 
Befides, it ought to be here remarked, that even thofe 
ftocks, which have no Drones among them, breed their 
young (proportionably to their numbers) with equal ex- 
pedition and difpatch, with thofe which are full of Drones, 
ag 
© Ex nibilo aibil fit, Quod non eff non operat, 
