ON BEES WAX/ X^X 



tdhich ftilV contained worms, but moft of them were fhut with 

 • lid of wax : he examined (bme of the latter, and found the 

 worms employed in fpinning cocoons of (ilk, 

 - All the worms had therefore been tended as in the natural 

 hives. In this fecond trial we did not perceive any diforder 

 in this hive; there had not been the leaft agitation: it is true 

 fome of the working bees attempted to go out in the courfe of 

 the day, but finding it impoffible, they re-afcended the combs 

 quietly, which were never left for an inftant. The hive being 

 abundantly fupplied with honey, and with the pollen necelfary 

 for their young, left them nothing to wifh for; and they were 

 ftill more happy when a queen was born, who afterwards be- 

 came pregnant, and laid a great number of eggs. 



After ihefe two experiments there could be no more doubt ThepoUenis 

 that the fecundating duft was the aliment proper for the young ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

 bees, and that the want of this fubftance was the caufe of their bees, 

 death, and of the evident anguilh of their nurfes during their 

 firft captivity, 



FOURTH EXPERIMENT. 



On Bees deprived of Honey and Pollen^ and which it was at- 

 tempted to feed mth Sugar, 



I wiftied to know ii^ it was the faccharine part of the honqy Exp. IV. 

 which enabled the bees to produce wax. ^j^^ ^J^^^^y ^^^^ 



Burnens confined a fwarm in a glazed hive: one pound of tains the princi- 

 Canary fugar was their fole aliment. P^" °^ '^^ «'" ■ 



He put a fecond fwarm into another hive, and endeavoured 

 to feed them with very eoarfe raw fugar; and to obtain a term 

 I of comparifon, a third fv^arm was fnut up in the fame manner, 

 Pand fed with honey. 



The bees of the three hives produced wax; thofe fed with 

 the different qualities of fugar produced it iboner than the 

 fwarm which had only had honey, and they produced it in 

 greater quantity. 



A pound of Canary fugar reduced to fyr up, and clarified Wax made from 

 with white of egg, yielded 10 gros, 52 grains, of a wax not dXrenr^u'^aU, 

 fo white as that which the bees extract from honey. ties. 



An equal weight of raw fugar gave 22 gros of very white 

 wax. 



Maple 



