BEES AND WASPS GENERAL HABITS. 161 



knowledge of the increased dimensions to which the 

 animal will grow under the influence of this food. Only 

 one queen is required for a single hive; but the bees 

 always raise several, so that if any mishap should occur to 

 one, other larvae may be ready to fall back upon. 



Besides honey and bee-bread two other substances are 

 found in beehives. These are propolis and beeswax. 

 The former is a kind of sticky resin collected for the most 

 part from coniferous trees. This is used as mortar in 

 building, &c. It adheres so strongly to the legs of the 

 bee which has gathered it, that it can only be detached 

 by the help of comrades. For this purpose the loaded 

 bee presents her legs to her fellow-workers, who clean it 

 off with their jaws, and while it is still ductile, apply it 

 round the inside of the hive. According to Huber, who 

 made this observation, the propolis is applied also to the 

 insides of the cells. The workers first planed the surfaces 

 with their mandibles, and one of them then pulled out a 

 thread of propolis from the heap deposited by the carrier 

 bees, severed it by a sudden throwing back of the head, 

 and returned with it to the cell which it had previously 

 been planing. It then laid the thread between the two 

 walls which it had planed ; but, proving too long, a portion 

 of the thread was bitten off. The properly measured portion 

 was then forced into the angle of the cell by the fore-feet 

 and mandibles. The thread, now converted into a narrow 

 ribbon, was next found to be too broad. It was therefore 

 gnawed down to the proper width. Other bees then com- 

 pleted the work which this one had begun, till all the walls 

 of the cells were framed with bands of propolis. The ob- 

 ject of the propolis here seems to be that of giving strength 

 to the cells. 



The wax is a secretion which proceeds from between 

 the segments of the abdomen. Having ingested a large 

 meal of honey, the bees hang in a thick cluster from the 

 top of their hive in order to secrete the wax. When it 

 begins to exude, the bees, assisted by their companions, 

 rub it off into heaps, and when a sufficient quantity of the 

 material has been thus collected, the work begins of build- 

 ing the cells. As the cells are used both for storing food and 



