852 INSECTA — BEE. 



tive of preference in bees ; for the nearer they are to the time of laying their 

 eggs, the bigger, redder and more shining are their bodies. 



The balls -which Ave see attached to the legs of bees returning to the 

 hives, are not wax, but a powder collected from the stamina of flowers, not 

 yet brought to the state of wax. The substance of these balls, heated in 

 any vessel, does not melt as wax would do, but becomes dry, and hardens ; 

 it may even be reduced to a coal. If thrown into water it will sink, whereas 

 wax swims. To reduce this crude substance into wax, it must first be di- 

 gested in the body of the bee. Every bee, when it leaves the hive to collect 

 this precious store, enters into the cup of the flower, particularly such as 

 seem charged with the greatest quantity of this yellow farina. As the ani- 

 mal's body is covered over with hair, it rolls itself within the flower, and quick- 

 ly becomes quite covered with the dust, which it soon after brushes off with 

 its two hind legs, and kneads it into two little balls. In the thighs of the 

 hinder legs there are two cavities edged with hair; and into these, as into a 

 basket, the animal sticks its pellets. Thus employed, the bee flits from 

 flower to flower, increasing its store, and adding to its stock of wax, until 

 the ball on each thigh becomes as big as a grain of pepper; by this time 

 having got a sufficient load, it returns, making the best of its way to the 

 hive. After the bees have brought home this crude substance, they eat it by 

 degrees ; or, at other times, three or four bees come and ease the loaded bee, 

 by eating each of them a share, the loaded bee giving them a hint so to do. 

 Hunger is not the motive of their thus eating the balls of waxy matter, es- 

 pecially when a swarm is first hived ; but it is their desire to provide a 

 speedy supply of real wax for making the combs. At other times, when 

 there is no immediate want of wax, the bees lay this matter up in reposito- 

 ries to keep it in store. When this waxy matter is swallowed, it is by the 

 digestive powers of the bee converted into real wax, which the bees again 

 disgorge as they work it up into combs ; for it is only while thus soft and 

 pliant from the stomach, that they can fabricate it properly. That the wax 

 thus employed is taken from their stomach, appears from their making a 

 considerable quantity of comb soon after they are hived, and even on any 

 tree or shrub where they have rested but a short while before their being 

 hived ; though no balls were visible on their legs, excepting those of a 

 few which may be just returned from the field. This is farther confirmed 

 by what happened in a swarm newly hived; for two days together, from the 

 time of their quitting their former home, it rained constantly, insomuch that 

 not one bee was able to stir out during that time ; yet, at the end of two 

 days, they had made a comb fifteen or sixteen inches long, and thick in pro- 

 portion. The crude wax, when brought home to the bees, is often of as 

 different colors as are the flowers from which it is collected ; but the new 

 combs are always of a white color, which is afterwards changed only by 

 the impurities arising from the steam, &c, of the bees. Bees collect crude 

 wax, also, for food ; for, if this was not the case, there would be no want of 



