The couvain of other insects as well as bees, h 
_ solely by the heat of the sun, without the assistance 
mother flies, particularly the couvain of wasps. ‘These 
sects (wasps) all die every year, either from the first col 
of winter, or from the want of sustenance in the autun 
because they have not the instinctive faculty to lay up 
stores in summer; but their couvain hatches in their nests 
on the return of warm weather. ; 
The same result would take place with bees, who ca 
live through the winter without honey. Should they d 
for want of food, or from any other contingence, their 
vain would, like that of wasps, hatch at the end of sprin 
or at the beginning of summer. ae 
If we wish to use the combs of a colony which died : 
autumn or winter, and whose work had not advance 
far as that the couvain could produce a complete stock, 
_ should take a swarm in the second case of a Scottish hiv 
the hole in the top stopped with a rag. 
_ As soon as the swarm is well settled in this Scottish cas 
‘that is, in the evening of the day in which it is housed, t 
rag must be removed from the hole, and the box containin 
the combs of the dead swarm placed on the top. The b 
instantly ascend, take possession of the works, clean 
parts which need cleansing, and the common queen imm 
diately begins to lay in the cells which have no eggs, 
_ drones fecundate those eggs which had not before been fe- 
cundated, and the old couvain is thus prepared to be hatch- 
ed at the same time with the new. ay 
From this moment this hive becomes Scottish by t 
junction of the two boxes, which will be soon filled 
combs by the multitude of neuters. The queen mot 
obedient to nature, will soon fill all the cells, old and n 
with her couvain, which will be replaced with honey, if th 
season be favourable, before the end of summer; so that b' 
the return of spring, this hive is in a state to become p 
midal, and to begin to furnish its annual harvest of one 
case in the second autumn of its establishment. ‘s 
_ If the combs which we wish to make use of, be in 
Scottish box, this box may be put under a full hive, wh 
bees are too rich or full fed. These bees are too laz 
swarm, and commonly die in their indolence. By place 
this box under them, they will immediately descend an 
resume their activity. 
The couvain remaining in the combs of the boxes 
