Jgg mV BEES WAX; 



Maple fugar produced the fame effefl. Tins experiment 

 having been repeated feven times fucceffively^ always employ/ 

 ing the fame bees, we could not doubt that fugar contains the 

 principles of wax, and we concluded that it was the faccha- 

 rine part of the honey which had this property. 



CONCLUSION. 



Coaclafionss Thefe obfervations iihew, 



1 ft. That the wax comes from the honey i 



2d, That the honey is alfo a food of the firft neceffity to the 

 bees: 



3d, That flowers do not always contain honey, as has bees 

 imagined ; that this fecretion is fubje6l to the variations of the 

 atmofphere; and, that the days in which it is abundant are 

 very rare in our climate : 



4th, That it is the faccharine part of the honey which en- 

 ables the bees to produce wax : 



5th, That raw fugar yields more wax than honey, or refined 

 fugar: 



6th, That the daft of the ftamina does not contain the prin* 

 ciples of wax : 



7 th, That this diift is not the food of the adult bees, ar^l that 

 they do not collect it for themfelves t 



8th, That the pollen affords the only aliment which is pro- 

 per for their young, but that this fubftance muft undergo a pe- 

 culiar elaboration in the ftomachs of the bees to be converted 

 into an aliment, which is always appropriated to their fex, their 

 age, and their wants, fmce the beft microfcopes do not (hew 

 the particles of pollen^ or their coverings in the liquor pre- 

 pared by the working bees. 



I fliall fpeak of the economical confequences of thefe ob- 

 fervations on another occafion. By ftiowing the breeders the 

 real wants of the bees, they will be podetTed of the means of 

 aflifting them in time, in all their neceffities, and of prefer v- 

 ing them in climates in which nature has not placed them, and 

 in which they could not profper without our aid. 



An 



