52 Beekeeping 



Protection of the nest. 



Since the nest of a colony is usually built in a cavity, it is 

 thereby protected, at least partially, from extremes of 

 weather and from depredations. In addition to the pro- 

 tection afforded by the shelter, the worker bees cover the 

 inside of the cavity (if it is rough) with propolis (bee glue). 

 This serves to protect the colony from external moisture, 

 often strengthens the wood in a rotten tree and covers irreg- 

 ularities in the surface. Certain races (p. 196) are especially 

 active in reducing the size of the entrance with the same 

 material (Fig. 94), sometimes adding wax to it. An exam- 

 ination of a cavity in a tree which has been occupied by a 

 colony for a considerable time will prove interesting in show- 

 ing the ways in which bees have improved their abode. 



While swarms usually seek protection in a cavity, it some- 

 times happens that they fail to do this but build their combs 

 in the open. Bouvier l has described in detail the comb 

 architecture of such a colony which survived the winter in 

 Paris but died in March. Similar cases are reported fre- 

 quently in the United States but such a colony fails to sur- 

 vive cold winters. On one occasion, an open-air colony was 

 discovered near Washington and was moved to the apiary of 

 the Department of Agriculture, then located at College Park, 

 Maryland (Fig. 41). The colony defended itself from rob- 

 bers and wasps during a period when robbing was severe and 

 wasps were unusually abundant, and lived until nearly mid- 

 winter, when it succumbed during a blizzard. In general, 

 the combs of such colonies are bent so that the wind cannot 

 blow directly through the nest, and the edges of combs are 

 sometimes united with comb projections or propolis. This 

 ability to live in the open suggests a similarity with the giant 

 bees of India and the Philippines which normally build 

 unprotected combs, the latter bees however usually building 

 only a single large comb. 



1 Bouvier, E. L., 1905. Sur la nidification d'une colonie d'abeilles a 

 1'air libre. Bui. soci6t6 philomatique de Paris, Neuv. s6r., VII, pp. 186- 

 206. 



