1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



25 



been bulged, or that have burr-combs attached, 

 yield a little more to the hive. I have several 

 times melted a given amount of comb honey and 

 then weighed the wax and honey afterward, and 

 estimated that about four pounds of wax was 

 needed to hold one hundred pounds of honey. 



Following this is a discussion of the number 

 of pounds of honey consumed in the production 

 of a given number of pounds of wax. Dr. Mil- 

 ler says, "If it takes ten pounds of honey to maice 

 one of wax, it takes fifty of honey to make that 

 five pounds of wax. " From this he thinks that 

 when combs are supplied so that none have to be 

 built, there will result much surplus honey, per- 

 haps a gain of 25 to 50 per cent. Now, I am not 

 able to tell how much honey is consumed in the 

 production of wax, for this is a problem that is 

 exceedingly difficult of solution because of our 

 inability to control all of the factors entering into 

 it. We can feed bees and have them build combs, 

 but we never know how much they obtain from 

 the fields, nor how much of the feed they use for 

 brood-rearing, etc. ; and, besides this, we must re- 

 member that there is more or less loss or varia- 

 tion due to the several abnormalities that must of 

 necessity enter into such experiments. It would 

 take most thorough and painstaking experiments 

 under the keenest of oversight to get any reliable 

 data on this question of the amount of honey 

 used in making wax. I have long desired to 

 make a study of this, but have always put it off 

 because of the seemingly insurmountable obsta- 

 cles in the way. But while we may not settle 

 the number of pounds of wax obtainable from a 

 given consumption of honey, we may find the 

 approximate proportion of comb honey obtain- 

 able compared with extracted honey produced 

 under the same conditions. I have long been 

 convinced that the popular estimates of this pro- 

 portion have been much in error, and that there 

 is no such great variation as is generally believ- 

 ed. I want to say right here that I think the 

 question does not depend upon the number of 

 pounds of honey taken to produce one pound of 

 wax, for I have found that there seems to be a 

 great amount of wax secreted, whether there is 

 need for it or not; and I will give a few instances 

 to support my belief, and I suspect that the great 

 majority of those who read this can recall many 

 similar instances proving that bees do secrete 

 wax whether they have actual need of it or not. 



INVOLUNTARY SECRETION OF WAX. 



Some years ago I received some bees in a wire 

 cage that had been sent to me by express, and 

 were several days on the road. These bees had 

 been supplied with water and honey for the trip, 

 and, when brought from the express office, they 

 were fairly loaded with wax scales, and had built 

 comb and stuck bits of wax all about the cage, 

 so that, when put into a hive, they were ready 

 at once for comb- building. These bees were not 

 gathering honey, and had no need of comb, and 

 yet they built it. I said they were not gathering 

 honey; but the excitement and jostling caused 

 them to keep their honey-sacs full most of the 

 time during six days, and they secreted wax in 

 great abundance without having made one visit 

 to a blossom. I think that this points toward an 

 involuntry secretion of wax. 



We will take another illustration. Only yes- 

 terday I was working in an outyard, and I found 



one nucleus the bees of which had secreted wax 

 beyond their needs, and had plastered it on the 

 top-bars of the frames and on the cover, and they 

 had used it also in lengthening cells unnecessari- 

 ly. The instant I lifted the cover I noted the 

 surplus of wax before moving the frames. The 

 hive was about half full of combs and about one- 

 fourth full of bees, so that there was empty comb 

 in abundance, and not the slightest reason for 

 wax secretion This nucleus was one that had 

 been made at least twelve days, and possibly 

 about twenty-five days, before. I was looking 

 to see whether the queen had been successfully 

 mated, but I found that she had been lost; and 

 as all the brood was hatching, there was none to 

 feed. A light honey-flow had prevailed for three 

 weeks when a hailstorm stopped it, and my ex- 

 amination was made about thirty-six hours after- 

 ward. The bees seemed to have been arranging 

 the stores in the brood-nest because I had put 

 combs of honey in such a position that they had 

 to move some of it to get the nest in the proper 

 shape. Now, under these conditions if the wax 

 secretion was not involuntary, what was it.^ 



This same thing was shown by many colonies 

 in the yard — both those that had queens and 

 those that had not. Colonies having supers in 

 all stages of completion had a surplus of wax 

 which was more or less manifest throughout. 

 This would be but natural in the event of the 

 sudden stoppage of a flow; but this flow was very 

 limited, resulting in a gain in supers of not over 

 ten pounds to the colony during the whole month; 

 and had it not been for the free use of bait-combs 

 there would not have been five pounds gain. The 

 bees used the bait-combs first, full sheets of foun- 

 dation next, and the starters were almost entirely 

 let alone. In the brood-nests of the weak colo- 

 nies and stronger nuclei where starters had been 

 given in the brood-frames there was some comb- 

 building on these starters which, under a fair 

 flow, would have been drawn out into full combs. 

 However, during even this slow honey-flow there 

 was plenty of wax secretion. 



In several hives where there was an abundance 

 of empty storage and brood-combs the bees had 

 gone out of their way to build comb, in one or 

 two instances passing .directly over a dry comb, 

 next to the brood, and building all new comb 

 from starters and from edges of broken combs. 

 The queens showed a preference for the newly 

 built comb, also going out of their way to lay in 

 it. Many of these colonies had built burr-combs 

 and put braces between the top-bars, all built of 

 nice white wax. I am sure that bees do like to 

 build comb, for many times I have noticed them 

 using old wax and building comb when there was 

 apparently no call for it whatever, except their 

 desire to build it — this, even when conditions 

 were not favorable for wax secretion. Now, if 

 bees so desire to build comb that they build it 

 when it is not needed, what about the comb- 

 building tendency when all conditions favor and 

 call for it? 



When bees are forced, or when their honey-sacs 

 are continually full, they secrete wax apparently 

 without intelligence as to its need. When stor- 

 ing from the fields, or when they are stirred up 

 within the hive, for two or three days at most 

 they will secrete quantities of wax even though 

 not an ounce of comb is constructed. 



