9 
. This method, drawn from nature, is infallible. The 
upper box is always filled with wax and honey, without 
bees or young of any kind, and entirely free from ordure. 
The whole colony has descended from the first pannier into 
the second, which becomes the upper as soon as the first 
is removed. The queen mother, her colony, and all her 
young, are settled in the second story, and if the season 
be favourable, the bees will sometimes begin to make 
combs in the third or under story. 
_ The upper story, when removed, contains only virgin 
_ honey, made the preceding spring; because the bees usually 
consume, during autumn and winter, the stock of the fore- 
going season. 
_ Every farmer could easily convert his honey into coarse 
_ sugar, which could be as easily refined as the sugar made 
from cane. 
_ The pyramidal hive is known, and in use, in different 
parts of France, but principally in Brittanny, the Seine, 
and contiguous departments, and will soon become general, 
because simple and easy. 2. 
= 
i 
CHAPTER II. 
OF THE BEE IN GENERAL. 
It is not here intended to give a list of the different spe- 
cies of bees, which the Author of nature has spread over 
creation. The common bee or honey-fly (in Latin, apis) 
is an insect of the order of flies, of four wings. They live 
in society. Man has subjected them to his domain, to 
“profit by their industry: he collects them into boxes or 
panniers, which he calls hives, and which differ in form 
and size in different countries. 
The order which prevails in the different functions of 
domestic bees,—their government, industry, ingenuity in 
their works, and the utility of their labours,—have at- 
tracted the attention of ancient and modern observers. 
Some have spent a considerable part of their lives, in the 
study of their history and economy; and some, carried 
away by enthusiasm, have imputed to them false and ex- 
travagant qualities. Swammerdam, Miraldi, and Réau- 
mur, by discarding these falsehoods and absurdities, and 
