Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/593

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there are fome bufhcs, as of filberts, barberries^ or the like, in the garden, as well as high trees ; for when the bees take a hiph flight, they often take a very long one before they fettle, and fometimes go fo far,' that the eye cannot trace them to the place of their fettling ; in which cafe, all at- tempts to fearch for them are ufually vain, and they are loll entirely. The low bufhes in view ufually determine them to low flights, and if they are feen to be afcending too high, the cuftom is to throw handfuls of duff and fand upon them ; this ufually brings them down, as they probably miftake the particles for drops of rain.

Another very antient cuftom, and which is continued to this day, is the beating on instruments of brafs, and the like, to make a great noife, while they are gathered in the air : it is pretended, that this difpofes them to fix themfelves the fooner. The origin of this cuftom has been an obfervation, that thunder always fends thofe bees, v/hich are abroad, from the flowers back to the hive, and it is fuppofed that this artificial noifc may have the fame effect; but in all probability, the bees are better acquainted with thunder than to be thus deceived: there is indeed much more probability of their miftaking the particles of daft, falling upon then- backs, for drops of rain, than taking fo unlike a found for thunder ; for it is found by experience, that the making all the noife that can be conceived, this way, never wa& able to drive one bee from a flower where it was bufy, or to fend one ftraggler home.

When the time of a [warms going out of the hive is ex- pected, the people, who have the care of them, fliould al- ways be prepared with a hive to receive them ; and when the [warm fettles upon fome branch of a bufh, or low tree the hiving 'of them is an eafier matter than could be imagined. See Hiving.

The nature of the annual new [warms of bees, which we fee depart from old hives, are not to be truly underftood, otherwife than by knowing the hiftory of the propagation of the fpecies among thefc animals, for which fee the articles Bee, and Queen bee.

The queen, or mother bee, which is the general parent of the hive of bees, continues laying eggs, in greater or lefTer number, during the whole fummer months, but in the ■winter months (Tie defifts ; and many bees perim in the end of the autumn, and during the courfe of the winter, with- out the hive's having any fupply from the female : by this means there are but a fmall number of bees left, when there is but a fmall provifion in ftore for them, zs they are to live on their labours of the former fummer. As foon as the fprino' comes on, and there appear flowers, out of which honey may be obtained, the parent bee begins to lay again ; and by the vaft number of eggs fhe lays every day, foon provides a fupply to repair the lofs. All thefe eggs are hatched, in two or three days after they are laid, into worms ; and in fine, they appear under the form of bees, and are fit for working, in about three weeks time. All the etxgs that the female lays, during the fir ft: week or two, are for the production of the common, or working bees as they are the more neceflary at that time : after this fhe begins to lay eggs which are to produce drones, whofe whole period of life is to be only of a few months, and who are never to work, but to feed on the labour of the others ; they "being the males of the hive, and all their bufi- nefs bcin" to impregnate the eggs of the females for future fupplies of young ; and this office they are to perform, as •well to this' their parent, as to their fitter female, that is to be hatched from an egg laid afterwards in a peculiar cell. According to this rule we fee, about the month of May, a Treat number of drones in a hive, where, before that time, There was not one, and foon after the appearance of thefe we find a new female, hatched out of an egg laid on pur- pofe at a proper time ; and fometimes the fame hive affords two or three of thefe females. Reaumur, Hift. Infecvt. Vol. io. p. 285.

All the time that this female, and thefe males, or drones, are hatching the number of common, or working bees, is alfo increafing very fait, by a numerous progeny hatching every day from the eggs of the parent ; and the confequence of this is, that the number becomes too great to be con- tained in the hive. It is neceflary then, that a certain num- ber fliould go off in form of a colony, and fettle themfelves in fome other place; this is foon refolved, and the number thus detached from the reft is what we call a /warm. This however they would never do, had they not a chief to lead them, and promife a future progeny for the object of their Cares and labours -, but as with them, when they become numerous, there is always hatched at leaft one female, fhe places herfelf at their head, and leads them out to fcek a new abode. If by any accident fhe is killed, they wilt never enter a hive at all, but fly leparate during the whole fum- mer, and take no care but of the feeding themfelves. This alfo is carried fo far among them, that if the hive be never fo full, and there be no young female among them, none of the bees will ftir, but they will hang in clufters out at the mouth of the hive ; and, on the contrary, if a hive be faut half peopled at the time that a young female is produced,

as foon as fhe is able to go away, and to lay ber egffs", the half, or at leaft fome confiderable part of thefe few bees, will leave the hive, though they have plentiful room in itj and form a new fivarm ; fo that though the overfulnefs of the hives be, in general cafes, one great reafon of the de- parting of a colony, in form of a [warm, yet it is not the only reafon.

The departure of the[warm ufually happens almoit imme- diately upon the birth of the young female, or queen. This creature feems to be fcecundated, and ready to lay her eggs alnioft as foon as fhe is out of the nymph ftate, and very often aitiially places herfelf at the head of a company, and goes off within four or five days of her birth in the winged itate. It may happen, however, that the time of the de- parture of the [warm may be retarded by accidents, fuch as very rainy, or ftormy weather ; for as fuch a feafon would render the [warming abroad very uncomfortable, they ufu- ally ftay in the hive till fuch weather is over, though per- fectly ready to go. It is very certain, that though the female is ready to go, fo foon after her birth, to form a new [warm, that her eggs are at that time fcecundated, and ready to produce the young ones j for there often go no drones, or male bees, with the new [warm, and it feems accident, ra- ther than the intent of nature, if any go out with them,. as the female is plainly already impregnated, and needs no new impregnation, till fome of her own offspring are able to ferve her. The time of the going out of the [warm is different in different countries, and even in the fame country varies very much, on occafion of the feafon of the year, and the ftate of the hive. Reaumur's Hift. Infect. Vol. 10. p. 288.

If a hive has been very well peopled during the winter, the young progeny go out early in the fpring; and if it have been very thinly peopled, it is fometimes as late as the mid- dle of June before they go out, even without any accidental delay from the want of a queen.

The people who manage bees, are informed of the time when they arc going to fend out new [warms by feveral figns. One is, when the hive is fo peopled, that many of the bees cannot find room within, but ftand in clulters on the outfide of the hive; another, is the appearance of a large number of drones, or male bees: thefe, however, are not certain figns, nor do they point'out the very day of the [warming ; but there is one which declares it very punctu- ally, which is the obferving, that though the hive be very full, and the day very fine, yet very few bees go out in fearch of honey ; in this cafe it is a certainty that they are affembling themfelves in the hive, and preparing to be gone in a very little time. If a perfon go near the hives, that are ready to fend out [warms, in the evening, or even in the night, he will hear a fort of humming noife in them, which is not to be heard at fuch times on any other occafion : in fhort, the whole is in agitation on the occafion, and the tumult never ceafes till the new colony goes out.

Swarms of in[e£ls. We have an account 1 of an extraordi- nary [warm of infccls in New-England, that deftroyed all the trees in the country for the fpace of two hundred miles. It is faid there were found a great number of holes in the ground, out of which thefe creatures broke forth in the form of maggots, which became flies with a kind of tail or fling, which they ftuck into the tree, and thereby envenomed and killed it.— [* Philof. Tranf. N° 8. p. 137'.]

SWEAT {Cycl.) — Many diftempcratures of the body have their rife, as well as their cure, by means of the differences of this evacuation.

The faults of our [weats, in regard to the general health of the body, are reducible principally to three kinds. 1. They are too exceffive : thefe ufually happen early in the morn- ing, as foon after three o'clock, and are in fome degree pe- riodical ; but in others they are rather continual, or have very few intermiflions. 2. The ufual and habitual fecreti- ons by [weat are fubje£t to be impeded, or retarded, and hence many diftempers take their rife. And 3. there is in fome particular people a remarkable difficulty of being brought to [weat at all.

The perfons principally fubjeft to too profufe fiueats, are men of a plethoric and fanguineo-phlegmatic temperament ; thefe, on the flighteft motion of the body, are ufually thrown into profufe [weats ; and the fame perfons are ufually fubjefl to violent nocturnal [weats in the fpring and autumn feafons. Perfons in hectics alfo, wtten near the time of their death, ufually fall into profufe nocturnal [weats, which are always a fatal prognoftic.

The perfons principally fubjecr. to a natural difficulty of [wealing, are thofe who have a mucous and thick dyfcra'fy of the humors ; and fometimes perfons of very tender and de- licate conftitutions, who are fubje£t to emotions of the blood, and are continually thin in flefh.

PrognojHcs in [weats. A profufe [weat, though it confiderably waftcs the flefh and ftrength, yet is lefs dangerous when left to itfclf, than when rafhly fuppreffed. The confequences of habitual [weats being fuppreffed, are ufually according to the habit and difpofition of the patient, either cutaneous eruptions, as the itch ? and the like ; or catarrhs, coryzas,

and