PRODUCTION OF WAX 197 



Color. — There is a great variation in the color of wax, depend- 

 ing upon the source of the food supply of the bees at the time 

 of comb building. As a rule newly built comb is light in color, 

 gradually growing darker with use. The brood combs shortly 

 become quite dark, and in time almost black, due to the stains of 

 constant travel as well as refuse from the growing larvas and 

 the cocoons which are left behind when they emerge from the 

 cells. When old combs are melted, so many of these cocoons 

 often remain that they will retain the exact shape of the original 

 cell. 



Size and Shape. — The difference in size and shape between 

 the cells prepared for various purposes, as for the rearing of 

 queens, is so striking as to attract instant attention on looking 

 within the hive. Much has been written in admiration of the 

 mathematical precision with which the bees are able to occupy 

 all the available space by building a six-sided cell, the bottom 

 of each of which was opposite the bottom of one-third of each 

 of three others. By building in this way the maximum of both 

 capacity and strength is secured with no lost space. 



If the bees build according to their own plans the combs are 

 usually about an inch in thickness with cells of equal depth on 

 each side. If built within frames in a hive they may be thicker 

 or thinner, depending upon the spacing of the combs. Extracted 

 honey producers often space their frames so as to secure thicker 

 combs to make the work of uncapping easy. The distance be- 

 tween the combs is from three-eighths of an inch to seven- 

 sixteenths of an inch, depending upon circumstances. The bees 

 require about three-eighths of an inch at least in order to move 

 about easily. Combs are usually placed about an inch and a 

 half from center to center. 



The worker cells are the smallest and we resort to the use of 

 foundation to insure that the cells will mostly be built of this 

 size, as mentioned elsewhere. According to most writers each 

 worker cell is about one-fifth of an inch in diameter, and the 

 drone cells are somewhat larger. The queen cells are built espe- 



