" The first comb made in a hive is all of one colour, viz. almost white ; but is not so white towards the end of the season, having then more of a yellow cast.
" There is a cell. which is called the royal cell, often three or four of them, sometimes more ; I have seen eleven, and even thirteen, in the same hive ; commonly they are placed on the edge of one or more of the combs, but often on the side of a comb ; however, not in the centre along with the other cells, hke a large one placed among the others, but often against the mouths of the cells, and pro jecting out beyond the common surface of the comb ; but most of them are form ed from the edge of the comb, which ter minates in one of these cells. The royal cell is much wider than the others, but seldom so deep : its mouth is round, and appears to be the largest half of an oval in depth, and is declining downwards, instead of being horizontal or lateral. The materials of which it is composed are softer than common wax, rather like the last mentioned, or those of which the lower edge of tbe plate of comb is made, or with which tk.4 bees cover the crysalis : they have very il4tIc wax in their compo sition, not one third, the rest I conceive to be farina.
" The comb seems at first to be formed for propagation, and the reception of ho ney to be only a secondary use ; for if the bees lose their queen, they make no combs; and the wasp, hornet, Sz.c. make comhs, although they collect no honey ; and the humble-bee collects the honey, and deposits it in cells she never made.
" I shall not consider the bee as an ex. cellent mathematician, capable of making exact forms, and having reasoned upon the best shape of the cell for capacity, so that the greatest number might be put into the smallest space (fisr the hornet and the wasp are much more correct, although not seemingly under the same necessity, as they collect nothing to occupy their cells) ; because, although the bee is pretty perfect in these respects, yet it is very incorrect in others, in the formation of the comb ; nor shall I consider these ani mals as forming combs of certain shape and size, from mere mechanical necessity, as from working round themselves; for such a mould would not form cells of dif ferent sizes, much less could wasps be guided by the same principle, as their cells are of very different sizes, and the first by much too small for the queen wasp to have worked round herself': but I shall consider the whole as an instinctive principle, in which the animal has no pow er of variation or choice, but such as arises from what may be called external necessity. The cell has in common .six
sides, but this is most correct in those first formed ; and the hottoni is commonly composed of those sides or planes, two of the sides making one ; and they generally fall in between the bottoms of three cells of the opposite side ; but this is not regu lar, it is only to be found where there is no external interruption.
" As soon as a few combs are formed, the female bee begins laying of eggs. As far as I have been able to observe, the queen is the only bee that propagates, al though it is asserted that the labourers do. Her first eggs in the season are those which produce labourers ; then the males, and probably the queen ; this is the pro gress in the wasp, hornet, humble-bee, &c. However, it is asserted by hem, that when a hive is deprived of a queen, la bourers lay eggs ; also, that at this time some honey and farina are brought in, as store for a wet day. The eggs are laid at the bottom of the cell, and we find them there before the cells are half completed, so that propagation begins early, and goes on along with the formation of the other cells. The egg is attached at one end to the bottom of the cell, sometimes stand ing perpendicularly, often obliquely ; it has a glutinous, or slimy covering, which makes it stick to any thing it touches. It would appear that there was a period or periods for laying eggs; for I have ob served in a new swarm, that the great bu siness of laying _eggs did not last above a fortnight ; although the hive was not half filled with comb, it began to slacken. In those new formed combs, as also in many not half finished, we find the substance called bee-bread, and some of it is cover ' ed over with wax, which will be consider ed further. By the time they have work ed above half way down the hive with the comb, they are beginning to form for the larger cells, and by this time the first broods were hatched, which were small, or labourers; and now they begin to breed males, and probably a queen, for a new swarm : because the males are now bred to impregnate the young queen for the present summer, as also for the next year. This progress in breeding is the same with that of the wasp, hornet, and humble-bee. Although this account is commonly allowed, yet writers on this subject have supposed another mode of producing a queen, when the hive is in possession of maggots, and deprived of their queen.