Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut, 



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Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909, at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897. 



Vol 



ume 



X 



FEBRUARY, 1918 



Number 9 



How Honeybees Produce Honeycomb. 



By Edward F. Bigelow, ArcAdiA, Sound Beach, Connecticut. 



Honeybees gather principally two 

 kinds of material — nectar and pollen. 

 They also gather gum, the sticky exu- 

 dation of buds, etc. This is called prop- 

 olis and is for coating over the inside 

 of the hive, filling cracks, etc. It is 

 also mixed with wax to strengthen the 

 comb, and applied to cells for "varnish- 

 ing" and strengthening. The chief ma- 

 terial for the building of the comb and 

 for the honey is the nectar from the 

 nectaries of flowers. Pollen, that well- 

 known mealy material from the stamens 

 of flowers, is used for the more solid 

 food for the larval honeybees, on practi- 

 cally the same principle observed when 

 other larvae feed on the solid parts of 

 plants, as, for example, common tent 

 caterpillars on leaves. 



It is well-known that the caterpillars 

 of moths and of butterflies feed on 

 leaves, while the adults sip only a little 

 nectar from the flower nectaries. So it 

 is with the honeybee. A large part i if 

 the diet of the growing bee in its larval 

 or caterpillar stage, is the solid part of 

 the plant, of which it selects the most 

 refined portion, the pollen. Nectar is 

 transformed into honeycomb for the 

 pn itection of the eggs of larval and 



pupal forms, and for storing the honey. 

 When the honeybee is to transform 

 the nectar into honey it takes the nectar 

 into its honey sac, carries it to 

 the hive and regurgitates it into the 

 cell. When the nectar is to be trans- 

 formed into comb it is swallowed and 

 passed on beyond the stomach sac, 

 through what is known as the stomach 

 mouth. The nectar then goes through 

 the processes of digestion, and enters the 

 blood or the body fluid analogous with 

 the blood, for the nourishment of the 

 bee. But as is well-known, from blood 

 other products may be obtained by the 

 action of certain glands, as, for example, 

 milk. The honeybee obtains comb wax 

 from the blood by the action of certain 

 wax glands. These are eight in number 

 and are situated on the lower side of 

 the abdomen. From a recently hived 

 swarm, bees may be obtained that will 

 show thin films of pure wax somewhat 

 resembling mica scales, and projecting 

 for a microscopical distance from be- 

 tween the abdominal plates. It is an 

 expensive product, demanding much 

 food, and taxing to the extreme the 

 bee's vital energy. The original esti- 

 mate was that the bee must eat twenty 



Copyright 1918 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn. 



