| sidered the best and finest. 
BEE. 
To promote the se- 
paration of the rest, the combs should be cut into 
very small portions, and exposed before a fire, to 
render the honey more liquid; the product will 
be honey of the second degree of fineness; and 
the remainder should be heated still more in a 
vessel over a fire, and then squeezed through a 
canvass bag, which will produce a coarser kind, 
well adapted for feeding bees. It facilitates the 
operation, to erect a stage of three or four sieves, 
one always finer than the other from the top, and 
in a short time the separation is effected. Honey 
comb, wrapped in paper, and kept in a cool place, 
may be preserved entire during a whole winter 
or longer. ‘To purify the wax, nothing more is 
necessary than boiling the empty combs, and 
those deprived of the honey, in water, and re- 
moving the scum which will rise in the succes- 
sive meltings. The Abbe della Rocca proposes 
to put a quantity of comb, tied up in a linen or 
woollen bag, into a cauldron of water; as the 
heat increases, the wax liquefies, and, escaping 
through the interstices of the bag, rises to the 
surface, while the refuse is retained behind. 
This is a simple, and, as we conceive, very effec- 
tual method. 
We apprehend that very few precautions are 
necessary for preserving bees in winter. They 
are not torpid in that season provided they be 
numerous, and then they cluster together towards 
the top of the hive. But, like other insects, they 
are liable to torpidity when single, or where there 
are few collected together, and that torpidity, by 
an extraordinary increase of cold, will end in 
death. With the view of saving their provision, 
it has been proposed to keep bees torpid, or in an 
ice-house all winter. It is undoubted that in a 
certain degree of cold they cease to consume 
honey, and animals may live an indefinite time 
in a state of torpidity. The hives ought not to 
be exposed to sunshine in the depth of winter, 
for the bees are induced to go out, and the sud- 
den cold that follows deprives them of the power 
of returning. 
The cultivation of bees forms one considerable 
branch of rural economy, and we could wish to 
see it much farther extended. This country is 
capable of supporting at least four or five times 
the number of hives now kept in it; and, with- 
out indulging in the speculations of extravagant 
profit, which are generally entertained by the 
authors who write on the subject, we will confi- 
dently affirm, that every one who attempts keep- 
ing bees on a moderate scale, and pays them some 
attention, will find it advantageous. 
The Humble bee.—There is a species of bee which 
collects the honey of plants, and stores it up in 
cells, though we may doubt if this is intended for 
its winter-provision. This is called the humming 
or humble bee, an insect so common in Britain as 
to have attracted the attention of every one. 
Like the honey-bee, it lives in societies, consist- 
ing of from 20 to 100 males, females, and what 
399 
are supposed neuters. We have never found the 
society more numerous in Scotland, and the con- 
tinental authors seem to describe it as smaller. 
These societies either dwell in cavities of the 
earth, or in tufts of moss collected together on 
the surface ; or sometimes those whose proper 
habitation is in such cavities, are content with a 
hollow of the ground, where they cover them- 
selves with moss and bits of leaves; or we have 
seen them effect a lodgement in a wooden box, 
some feet above the ground, in which they ap- 
peared to have themselves collected moss and 
leaves, and there bred a considerable colony. In 
reverting to the origin of these societies, we are 
opposed by very considerable difficulties. It 
seems probable, that a single female, which has 
been accidentally preserved through the winter, 
is the parent of the whole, and that she selects 
the spot, or cavity, for her posterity. No natural- 
ist has, we believe, yet beheld a nest in its ori- 
gin, though it has been seen when consisting of 
few cells. Reaumur relates, that on one occasion 
he removed the whole combs from a nest, and 
completely evacuated the interior. Nothing was 
visible for several days; but after the bees had 
remained eight days undisturbed, alump of paste 
and farina the size of a nut was found in it, at- | 
tached to which was a pot of honey, that is, a 
half-made cell, which the bees at times construct, 
and in which some of their honey is kept. Thence, 
and from other circumstances, it is conjectured, 
that the mother proceeds to collect a quantity of 
farina or pollen, in the midst of which her eggs | 
are laid; and by their coming to maturity after 
a certain time, the colony is constituted and en- 
larged. Several females inhabit the same nest, 
living in harmony together. They are occupied 
in collecting honey; and are easily known, from 
being the largest of all the three species. The 
males are next in size; always of a lighter col- 
our; and are capable of making wax. ‘The 
workers are of various sizes in the same nest, 
some not being half the size of others. Nature 
does not require the like sacrifice in the males of 
humble bees as in those of the honey-bee to pro- 
pagate the species; the sexual union takes place 
according to the common mode of insects; nel- 
ther is there any massacre among them. Fe- 
males and workers are much less disposed to use 
their stings than the honey-bee; here, also, the 
males have none. 
On opening a nest containing a colony of hum- 
ble bees, a confused and misshapen aggregate of 
ovoidal substances is disclosed, interspersed in 
various parts with crude masses of wax, and cells 
of honey. The ovoidal substances are the young 
coming to maturity, within a silken cocoon coated 
with wax; and amidst some of the lumps of wax 
are found larvee, which one author thinks are 
there for the purpose of being fed, and another 
for being preserved from cold and humidity. The 
eggs are deposited in cells, which the workers 
lend their aid to construct; and the mother her- 
