Curiosities & wonders > New observations on the natural history of bees

CONSIDERATIONS.
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i they must be supplied with it, which re-
ji quires a very exact proportion. I admit,
.1 that in determining to what extent hives
Q may he multiplied in a particular country,
j£ it is necessary first to know how many that
'> country can support, which is a problem yet
/I unsolved. It also depends on another pro-
ll blem, the solution of which is as little known,
is namely, the greatest distance that bees fly
bees; for hornets, wasps, and humble bees, as well as flies
and butterflies, remain torpid and motionless during the
whole winter.”
In the month of January M. de Reaumur found hrood of
all ages in certain hives. The same thing happened to my- -
self, when the thermometer stood in my hives at about 93°.
Now that I am on the subject of thermometrical observa¬
tions, I may cursorily remark, that M. Dubost of Bourg en
Bresse, in a memoir otherwise valuable, is of opinion, that
the larvse cannot be hatched below 104°. I have repeatedly
made the experiment with the most accurate thermometers,
and obtained a very different result. When the thermome¬
ter rises to 104, the heat is so much greater than the eggs
require, that it is intolerable to the bees. M. Dubost has
been deceived, I imagine, by introducing his thermometer
too suddenly into a cluster of bees, and the mercury has
rose higher, from the agitation excited among them than
it should naturally do. Had he kept it there, he would
have soon seen it fall to between 95 and 97, which is
the usual temperature of hives in summer. In August
this year, when the thermometer in the open air stood at
94, it did not rise above 99 in the most populous hives.
The bees had little motion, and a great many rested on the
board of the hive.