1232 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLKTE STOCK DOCTO' ^. 



and acid. In fact, it is said that under the microscope, me ipoflen con- 

 tained has deteiinined some of the flowers from which tne noney was 

 taken. When tiist drawn from the comb the honey is quite fluid, but in 

 time candies, as it is termed, that is, the solid ;^lucose separates from the 

 fluid parts, and is identical, chemically, with grape sugar ; nevertheless the 

 solid and fluid parts are not essentially different. All honey tends to 

 crystalize with age, and become ycHow. 



The adulterations of honey arc various. That from glucose (" corn 

 sugar") is the most diflicult of detection ; starch, chalk and ether solids, 

 may be detected b}' hwiting the honey, whereupon these impurities will 

 settle to the bottom. Of late years the tilling of old comb with glucose 

 has been so largely i)racticed, that it is not safe to buy any but white 

 comb, capped over. Hence pure comb, capped by the bees, commands 

 two or three times the price of strained honey. 



rx. Wax and How It is Formed. 



The wax used by bees in the formation of the cells is a solid, unc- 

 tuous substance, secreted by the bees in pellets of an irregular pentagon 

 shape, on the under side of the abdomen ; it is in very thin scales, 

 secreted by and moulded upon the membrane towards the body from the 

 wax-pockets. There are four wax-pockets on a side, and thus eight 

 scales may be secreted at a time. 



Wax is a costly product for tiie bees, the production of one ounce of 

 wax requiring the consumption of about twenty ounces of honey. 

 Hence, modern ingenuity has invented a machine for pressing out thin 

 scales of wax of the true hexagonal shape, although the natural combs 

 are not true hexagons. The formation of the comb by bees is one of the 

 most interesting and wonderful things in nature. The walls of anew cell 

 are only 1-1 80th of an inch in thickness, and so formed as to combine 

 the greatest possible strength with the least material, and the least cost 

 of space. The drone cells are about one-fifth larger than those of the 

 workers, the diameter of the worker cells averaging little more than one- 

 fifth of an inch, while drone cells are a little more than one-fourth of an 

 inch, or, according to Reamur, respectively two and three-fifths lines, 

 and three and one-third lines. 



Comb, when first formed, is always transparent; when dark, it has 

 become so from being used as brood comb, the color being due to the 

 cocoons left in the cells. When used solely for honey, they are often 

 drawn out even to an inch in length. The capping of the brood-cells is 

 dark, porous, and convex, while the capping of those in which honey is 

 etored, is white and concave. 



