The Colony and its Organization 51 



these are the honey stores, chiefly to the back of the nest. 

 Drone cells are most often found in the lower corners of 

 combs. This typical plan may be variously modified if the 

 nest is of peculiar shape. 



In natural comb-building, bees build for the immediate 

 present, with no evidence of a plan for the needs of the future. 

 When comb-building begins, worker cells are built so long as 

 the queen continues promptly to lay eggs in the new cells. 

 A queenless colony builds storage cells (drone-cell size). If 

 the colony is rather weak and can care for only a little brood, 

 the bees soon begin to build storage cells and this also occurs 

 if the queen is a poor layer. In a nucleus, however, only 

 worker cells are built. If nectar is coming in abundantly 

 they construct storage cells. It may thus happen that some 

 of the combs near the center of the brood nest contain a 

 superabundance of cells suitable only for the rearing of drones 

 or for the storage of honey, and this condition remains in 

 future years, regardless of the best interests of the colony. 



Color of the combs. 



When first built, combs are light yellow or almost white 

 in color, 1 but after brood is reared in the cells the comb is 

 darkened by the " cocoons" left by the brood. These so- 

 called cocoons consist of larval skins and excreta, with the 

 possible addition of a portion of the delicate silken cocoon 

 (p. 101). These deposits increase with successive rearings of 

 brood until the bases of the cells are appreciably thickened 

 while the outer parts of the side walls remain practically 

 unmodified in size. If an old comb is soaked in water the 

 layers of deposits may be readily separated. The combs 

 are also darkened by deposits of propolis on the cappings of 

 honey cells and the tops of combs are often strengthened by 

 deposits of this substance, especially when the combs are 

 attached to rough wood, as in a hollow log. 



1 The color varies with the sources of honey and pollen at the time the 

 comb is being built. This fact is noi: yet satisfactorily explained. It is 

 also known that waxes vary similarly in certain physical properties. 



