184 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



He supposes, in order for its being formed into pellets, 

 that it requires some moisture, which the heat evapo- 

 rates after the above hour ; but in the case of recently 

 colonized hives, that the bees go a great way to seek 

 it in moist and shady places*. 



When a bee has completed her lading, she returns 

 to the hive to dispose of it. The honey is disgorged 

 into the honey-pots or cells destined to receive it, and 

 is discharged from the honey-bag by its alternate con- 

 traction and dilatation. A cell will contain the con- 

 tents of many honey-bags. When a bee comes to dis- 

 gorge the honey, with its fore legs it breaks the thick 

 cream that is always on the top, and the honey which 

 it yields passes under it. This cream is honey of a 

 thicker consistence than tlie rest, which rises to the top 

 in the cells like cream on milk : it is not level, but forms 

 an oblique surface over the honey. The cells, as you 

 know, are usually horizontal, yet the honey does not 

 run out. The cream, aided probably by the general 

 thickness of the honey and the attraction of the sides 

 of the cell, prevents this. Bees, when they bring home 

 the honey, do not always disgorge it ; they sometimes 

 give it to such of their companions as have been at m ork 

 within the hive. Some of the cells are filled with honey 

 for daily use, and some with what is intended for a re- 

 serve, and stored up against bad weather or a bad sea- 

 son : these are covered with a waxen lid''. 



The pollen is employed as circumstances direct. 

 When the bee laden with it arrives at the hive, she 

 sometimes stops at the entrance, and very leisurely de- 



■ Reaura. v. 302. — comp. 433. I have seen bees out before it was 

 lisht. " lleauin. v. 448. 



