326 ENTOMOLOGY 
water. Bees suck or lap it up from such flowers as they can 
reach with their flexible, sucking tongue, 0.25 to 0.28 inch 
long. This nectar is taken into the honey sac, located in the 
abdomen, for transportation to the hive. Besides being thin, 
the nectar has at first a raw, rank taste, generally the flavor 
and odor peculiar to the plant from which gathered, and these 
are frequently far from agreeable. To make from this raw 
product the healthful and delicious table luxury which honey 
constitutes—“ fit food for the gods ’’—is another of the func- 
tions peculiar to the worker bee. ‘The first step is the station- 
ing of workers in lines near the hive entrances. These, by 
incessant buzzing of their wings, drive currents of air into and 
out of the hive and over the comb surfaces. If the hand be 
held before the entrance at such a time a strong current of | 
warm air may be felt coming out. The loud buzzing heard at 
night during the summer time is due to the wings of workers 
engaged chiefly in ripening nectar. Instead of being at rest, 
as many suppose, the busy workers are caring for the last- 
gathered lot of nectar and making room for further accessions. 
This may go on far into the night, or even all night, to a 
greater or less extent, the loudness and activity being propor- 
tionate to the amount and thinness of the liquid. Frequently 
the ripening honey is removed from one set of cells and placed 
in others. This may be to gain the use of certain combs for 
the queen, or possibly it is merely incidental to the manipula- 
tion the bees wish to give it. When, finally, the process has 
been completed, it is found that the water content has usually 
been reduced to 10 or 12 per cent., and that the disagreeable 
odors and flavors, probably due to volatile oils, have also been 
driven off in a great measure, if not wholly, by the heat of 
the hive, largely generated by the bees. During the manipu- 
lation an antiseptic (formic acid) secreted by glands in the 
head of the bee, and possibly other glandular secretions as well 
have been added. The finished product is stored in waxen 
cells above and around the brood nest and the main cluster of 
bees, as far from the entrance as it can be and still be near 
