ays 
passed under, will soon hatch, the bees produced will join 
the old hive, whose population increases, and their labours 
become more active. It will assume all the qualities, and 
produce all the results, of a pyramidal hive, in periodical 
_ succession. 
These observations deserve universal attention. The first, 
relating to the recovery of hives, whose population has pe- 
rished, is a new discovery, and is a phenomenon, not less 
advantageous, than the discovery of the pyramidal hive. 
There is no danger of losing hives, though the active popu- 
lation of many of them perish by the ordinary causes of 
destruction, particularly among the simple hives, of the pre- 
ceding spring. These families may be restored, on the re- 
turn of warm weather, by the couvain left in the combs. 
Especially, if the boxes be used for the housing of new 
swarms: then the old couvain hatches with the new, and the 
population, thus increased, will become very considerable. 
These hives, thus restored, may produce swarms the same 
year, especially in countries where buckwheat is cultivated, 
and these swarms can procure, for themselves, sufficient 
subsistence for the winter. However, if they should perish, 
their boxes will be valuable, to preserve for use in the fol- 
lowing spring, to receive new swarms. Henceforward, pur- 
suing this kind of culture, only a few individuals will be 
lost, while we profit by the fructifying the whole number of 
eggs remaining in the old cells. 
The couvain is almost imperceptible in the cells, while 
they remain in the state of eggs, though they must have been 
there before the destruction of the drones, because they are 
fecundated ; they remain, therefore, in the same state, dur- 
ing autumn and winter, and, in northern climates, even 
during the two first months of spring. This couvain can- 
not perish with the bees of the family; because, while in 
the ege state, it is impossible, until it encloses an embryo. 
But the sacrifice and loss is certain, by the inconsiderate 
and injudicious process of melting down the combs, which 
destroys every hope. ae 
The secrets of nature do not always remain impenetra- 
ble; but she is niggardly, and only suffers a few of them to 
escape in an age. It is only in the age of Napoleon le 
Grand, that Messrs. Lavoisier, Mongolfier, Guiton, Mor- 
veau, Young de Vaux, Lacépéde, Berthollet, Chaptal, &c.* 
* Ete. I suppose, means Mons, Ducouédie. -- Translator. 
