1142 



THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 





may consider this peculiarity of honey a great advantage. The 

 function of honey is to serve as food for the mature bees, and 

 when mixed with pollen for the brood. 



WAX AND COMB. Wax is in character and composition much 

 like fat. It is secreted by the worker bees in scales, in eight 

 little wax pockets beneath the abdomen. When the hive is 

 destitute of comb, nearly all the bees are engaged in secreting 

 wax ; while on the .other hand, if the hive is full of comb, few of 

 the bees secrete wax. The function of the wax is to form comb. 

 COMB. (Fig. 10) is a very, thin, beautiful structure made 



from wax. The cells are hexa- 

 gonals, consisting of a hexagonal 

 prism resting on a triangular pyr- 

 amid. The cells vary from one- 

 fourth inch (Fig. 10, a) in diam- 

 eter drone cells to one-fifth 

 of an inch (Fig. 10, <?) worker 

 cells. Two or three rows of 

 cells (Fig. 10, b) between the 

 drone and worker comb, are ir- 

 regular in size, neither worker 

 or drone size, but answer well 

 for honey. The queen cells and 

 brood cappings of all cells are 

 partly composed of pollen, and 

 so are more dark, brittle, and 

 porous. The function of the comb is to afford storage for honey 

 and pollen, and to serve as a place to rear brood. 



POLLEN. This is the "bee-bread," and is merely the gath- 

 ered pollen from flowers. It is carried to the hive in pellets 

 packed into the pollen baskets on the outside of the posterior 

 legs. The carriers scrape it off into the cells, when the other 

 bees pack it. Bees sometimes gather flour, meal, etc., when 

 there is no pollen to be found in flowers. Pollen contains 

 all the necessary food elements, including nitrogen, and so is a 

 typical food. The bees can not rear brood without pollen. 

 The function of pollen is to feed the bees and brood. 



FIG. 10. 



