OU ae 
rather stupification, during the whole winter, the hives ar 
put into ice-houses, where a uniform degree of cold pre 
serves the bees. ‘This may be true, but I would see h 
-_ experiment tried, before I would recommend the custom 1 
"France, or other mild climates. 2 a Sa 
When the winter is mild, rainy, or interrupted with in 
tervals of serene days, it is always disastrous to bee 
They do not sleep as in severe winters. They consume 
their provisions, and are often in want before the return of 
spring and vegetation. ‘They then experience a famine, 
most distressing, if the proprietor do not relieve them by a 
supply of aliment, till the revival of flowers. But now the 
loss of a family of bees is not so great as it was before the 
discovery of restoring them by hatching the eggs whic 
remain in the cells, by the sole heat of the sun, or b 
using the boxes to put new swarms in, which will hatch ~ 
the remaining eggs, and increase and strengthen the 
colony. : a 
As soon as the egg is hatched, a worm comes out of it, — 
or rather replaces it; and without quitting the cell, at th 
moment of its birth, begins to spin a robe to enwrap itsel 
in which it enlarges and becomes a nymph, by its ow 
proper essence, without foreign aid. As soon as the rob 
is finished, the insect pierces 2, and comes out in the form © 
of a little bee. While this insect is labouring, as it were, © 
from nothing into life—from the state of an egg to that of — 
a fly—it has no need of aliment. But at the instant of 
its birth, if he be weak, or the weather unfavourable for 
his flight to the fields, it requires nourishment; and it is — 
then alone, that the working bees show a tenderness truly — 
maternal, by lavishing on him those aliments, which are — 
the most proper to advance his growth and perfection. 
The working bees are divided into two classes. The on 
class is occupied in the interior of the hive, to construct 
combs, and to connect and polish the cells. The other class — 
goes out to forage. They have all, equally, the faculty to 
make honey, wax, and propolis.. They are neither male nor 
female, for they are destitute of the facultative organs o 
procreation. Doubtless nature has thus disposed of them, 
to keep them in perpetual activity, which could not be, 1 
maternal cares could draw them off from the daily labour 
to which they are indispensably attached. Among these in- _ 
sects, every thing has a character, to distinguish them fro re 
all other beings in nature. 
