Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/151

Rh This fact, which, it must be acknowledged, occurs very seldom, is at variance with the doctrine of Huber, that the young Queen lays the eggs of workers only for eleven months successively. He admits, though not very explicitly, that a Queen hatched in spring may lay fifty or sixty drone eggs during the course of the ensuing summer, but he refers to the swarm led forth by the old Queen, exclusively, when he speaks of its producing a new colony in the same season in the course of a month after its first departure. With respect to the eleven months, it certainly consists with our own experience, that, as Feburier asserts, the time occupied by the Queen in laying the eggs of workers before she begins that of drones, and, of course, those that shall produce Queens and their accompanying swarms, varies according to the temperature, and especially to the abundance of food. A swarm, for example, that came off at the end of June, sometimes throws off a swarm about the middle of the following May, which is little more than ten months of an interval, and, on the other hand, it sometimes happens that a hive which has swarmed at the middle of May, does not throw another till the end of June in the following year, which is above 13 months. On the Diseases and Enemies of Bees.—Much exaggeration has prevailed amongst apiarians on the subject of the diseases of bees, many of which, or rather most of which, seem, on careful examination, to have no existence but in the imagination of the observers. After long experience and attentive