HONEY-COMB. 



269 



HONEY-COMB. 



NATL'KAL-COMB UUILDINCt IN A HI\K 3IADE EXTIKELY OF GLASS. 



wax scales protruding between the rings 

 that form the body, and these scales are 

 either picked from their bodies or from the 

 bottom of the hive or honey-boxes in which 

 they are building. If a bee is obliged to 

 carry one of these wax scales but a short 

 distance, it takes it in its mandibles, and 

 looks as business-like with it thus as a car- 

 penter with a board on his shoulder. If it 

 has to carry it from the bottom of the honey- 

 box, it takes it in a way that I can not ex- 

 plain any better than to say it slips it un- 

 der its chin. When thus equipped, you 

 Avould never know it was encumbered with 

 any thing, unless it chanced to slip out, 

 when it will very dextrously tuck it back 

 with one of its fore feet. The little plate of 

 wax is so warm from being kept under its 

 chin as to be quite soft wlien it gets back ; 

 and as it takes it out, and gives it a pinch 

 against the comb where the building is going 

 on, one would think it might stop a while, 

 and put it into place ; but. not it; for off it 

 scampers and twists around so many differ- 

 ent ways, you might think it was not one of 

 the working kind at all. Another follows 

 after it sooner or later, and gives the wax 

 a pinch, or a little scraping and burnishing 

 with its polished mandibles, then anotlier, 



and so on; and the sum total of all these ma- 

 noeuvres is, that the comb seems almost to 

 grow out of nothing; yet no one hebjever 

 makes a cell. 



The finished comb is the result of the unit- 

 ed efforts of the moving, restless mass; and 

 the great mystery is, that any thing so won- 

 derful can ever result at all from such a 

 mixed-up, skipping-about way of working 

 as they seem to have. When the cells are 

 built out only part way they are filled with 

 honey or eggs, and the length is increased 

 when they feel disposed, or "get around 

 to it," perhaps. It may be that they find it 

 easier working with shallow walls about 

 the cells, for they can take care of the brood 

 much easier, and put in the honey easier 

 too, in all probability; and, as a thick rim is 

 left around the upper edge of the cell, they 

 have the material at hand to lengthen it at 

 any time. This thick rim is also very nec- 

 essary to give the bees a secure foothold, for 

 the sides of the cells are so thin they would 

 be very apt to break down with even the 

 light weight of a bee. When honey is com- 

 ing in rapidly, and the bees are crowded for 

 room to store it, their eagerness is so plainly 

 apparent, as they push the work along, that 

 tliey fairly seem to quiver with excitement ; 



