124 Trails to Woods and Waters 



I do not think any one knows just the 

 chemistry of wax making. It, of course, 

 comes from plants and flowers, but just what 

 ones, and just how it is prepared only the 

 reticent bee knows. 



As soon as the honey flow begins in the 

 spring the colony set to work to draw out 

 the cells in which to store the golden nectar. 

 Soon in each of the little sections which are 

 made to hold a pound of honey, a wax curtain 

 is started beginning at the top and working 

 down. On each side of this curtain are 

 plainly stamped the hexagonal cells which, 

 when they have been drawn out laterally, will 

 be the fully developed cells. It is a marvel 

 of workmanship this golden cellular mass, 

 each cell symmetrical and nicely sealed. But 

 each honey gatherer has a tri-square on the 

 end of his nose, his proboscis being triangular, 

 and six of these triangles placed side by side, 

 and point to point give him the perfect 

 hexagon. This cell when completed is about 

 three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and 

 about three-quarters of an inch deep. 



