106 THE BUILDING OF BEES. 



to mould the softened wax into such exquisitely delicate and 

 beautiful fomiS; This interesting instance of adaptation, so 

 clearly pointing to the Divine Wisdom, seems to have escaped 

 the notice of previous writers. 



223. Careful experiments prove that from seven to fifteen 

 pounds of honey are usually required to make a single pound 

 of wax. As wax is an animal oil, secreted chiefly from honey, 

 this fact will not appear incredible to those who are aware 

 how many pounds of corn or hay must be fed to cattle to 

 have them gain a single pound of fat. From experiments 

 made by Mr. P. Yiallon here, and by Mr. De Layens in France, 

 it seems that in good circumstances bees use only about seven 

 pounds of honey to produce a pound of wax. But the actual 

 cost of comb to the bees is not to be reckoned only by the 

 amount of honey digested by them to produce this wax. It 

 must also be borne in mind that there is nearly always a loss 

 of time, in comb-building, since the bees must digest the honey 

 before the wax cells are formed. As stated before, comb 

 building and honej'- gathering go on simultaneously, but when 

 a swarm is hived, it takes quite a little time before anj^ 

 amount of comb is built, and in the meantime the harvest is 

 on and the bees that have to build comb are unable to take 

 full advantage of it. 



Many bee-keejDers are unaware of the value of empty comb. 

 Suppose honey to be worth only ten cents per pomid, and 

 comb, when rendered into wax, to be worth thirty cents, the 

 Apiarist who melts a pound of comb loses largely by the 

 operation, even without estimating the time his bees have con- 

 sumed in building it. It is, therefore, considered a first prin- 

 ciple in bee-culture never to melt good worker-combs. A 

 strong colony of bees, in the height of the honey-harvest, will 

 fill them with veiy great rapidity. 



With the box hives (275), but little use can be made of 

 empty comb, but by the use of movable frames, eveiy good 

 piece of worker-comb may be given to the bees (574). 



224. As we have seen before, while the small cells are 

 designated as worker-cells, the large ones, which vary greatly 

 in depth and are more especially ])ro]iared to store honey, and 



