216 BIOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS 



themselves with honey, and then have suspended themselves by 

 the feet in a sort of curtain. As the wax is produced, it is re- 

 moved by other workers, chewed to make it soft, and then carried 

 to still others by whom it is built into comb. 



This comb is a very wonderful structure, composed of six-sided 

 cells in two layers, so arranged as to leave no waste space, and 

 afford the greatest storage capacity with the use of the least 

 material. Not only is it used for storage of honey, and " bee 

 bread " (a food substance made from pollen and saliva) but also 

 for the rearing of young bees, the eggs being placed one in a cell 

 by the queen and sealed up by the workers, making what is called 

 " brood comb." 



Honey is made from the nectar of flowers which is taken into 

 the crop of the bee, its cane sugar changed to the more easily 

 digested grape sugar, and then emptied into the comb cells, where 

 it is left to ripen and evaporate before being sealed up. Until the 

 seventeenth century, people did not know how to make sugar, 

 and depended upon honey entirely for this necessary food. At 

 present the bee products in United States are worth $22,000,000 

 per year. 



The removal of honey by man does not harm the bees if about 

 thirty pounds be left for their winter use, that being sufficient to 

 feed the average colony of about 40,000 bees for an ordinary winter. 



Propolis, or bee glue, is another important product of the hive. 

 It is gathered from the sticky leaf buds of some plants. Bees will 

 even use fresh varnish if they can get at it. It is used to make 

 smooth the interior of the hive, to help attach the comb, to close 

 up holes and cracks, and even to varnish the comb if it is left 

 unused for a time; it is the brown substance which may be seen 

 on section boxes in the stores. 



Industries of the Colony. Not only do the workers prepare the 

 wax, honey, and propolis, as needed, but they have other duties 

 as well, which they also take turns in performing. Some attend 

 and feed the queen or drones; some act as nurses to the hungry 

 larvae, which they feed with partly digested food from their own 

 stomachs; some clean the hive of dead bees or foreign matter; some 



