THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



13 



An Inquiry into the Source and Nature 

 of Bees-Wax. 



Till within thopp few years it was very gen- 

 erally and impluitly believed, that the veliow 

 matter (in other words, the pollen or tarina of 

 flowers,) which bees visibly eollct t on their 

 thisrhs, is the prime constituent o' wav, tlie ma- 

 terfal of the honey-t omb. Even Swammerdam, 

 Keaunuir and Bonnet were of this opinion. 

 Butler, Purrhas, Resden and Thorley argued 

 against iis identity with wax ; and I trust that 

 the observations and e-xpeiiments which lam 

 about to detail, will convince the dispassionate 

 mciuirer of the fallacy of this old opinion. 



In the first place, it is to be observed, that 

 where no more comb can be built, as in old 

 hives, the bees carry in the greatest ciuantily of | 

 this yellow matter. i 



Secondly, That it differs materially from wax, 

 the latter when examined between the fingers 

 being adhesive, the former crumbly ; the laiter 

 also liquitying on the application of heat, whiist 

 the foimer burns to ashes. 



Thirdly, That the wax of new combs, from 

 ■whatever source collected, is uniformly white ; 

 whereas, the farina, as gathered by the bees, 

 varies in color, being generally yellow or red, 

 agreeing in color with the anther dust of the 

 flowers in blossom at the time of its collection. 

 Moreover, the farina after it has been stored in 

 the cells, retains its original color ; whilst wax, 

 after its residence in the hives, invariably 

 changes, first to a yellow, and lastly to a dark 

 brown. Layers of different-colored farina are 

 generally found in the cells, if slit down ; and 

 every hive, at the season of deprivation, pos- 

 sesses a store of it. 



Fourthly, That fresh colonies carry in very 

 little, if any, of this matter, for some days after 

 swarming, though combs arc fornif^d within that 

 period. I noticed this fact in my first colony : 

 the sAvarm issued from the parent hive on the 

 18th of May— five days of rainy weather suc- 

 ceeded ; during this period the bees were pre- 

 vented from flying abroad ; I fed them nightly 

 with sugared ale, and before the return of fine 

 weather a considerable quantity of comb was 

 formed. Now excepting such materials as the 

 bees might have brought with them from the 

 parent hive, in this case, the sugared ale alone 

 must have been the source of the wax. Huish 

 has remarked that unless bees have access to 

 water, and also to sugar or honey, no comb 

 can be formed. Again, it may be observed, 

 that upon the storilj'ingplan, when fresh works 

 are commenced in the duplets or triplets, if the 

 farina were the basis of the combs, an increased 

 quantity should be carried in. On the contrary, 

 though 1 have watched the bees very minutely 

 on these occasions, I scarcely ever witnessed 

 the introduction of farina ; and in such rare in- 

 stances as I chd observe it, it might fairly be re- 

 garded as food for the young larvae of the bees 

 contained in the full box or boxes. 



The observations of Mr. John Hunter tended 

 to confirm this view of the matter ; still more 

 so, those of M. Huber and son. In order to de- 

 termine the point with greater precision, Huber 



instituted many experiments. On the 24th of 

 May he lodged a recent swarm in a straAV hive 

 leaving at its disposal only a sufiiciency of ho 

 ney and water tor its consumption, and prevent 

 ing it fiom going beyond the precincts of a 

 room, so closed as to admit only a renewal of 

 the air.* At the end ot five days as many cakes 

 of beautifully while, though very fragile, wax 

 were suspended from the roof, the honey had 

 totally disappeared. Still, however, as there 

 was a possibility that the thighs and .stomachs 

 of the bees might have conveyed pollen from 

 the parent hive, he withdrew these five coinb.s, 

 and leplaced the bees in the hive with a tre-h 

 supply of honey and water ; they renewed their 

 toil with unabated industry, and soon fabricated 

 new combs : these last Avere taken from them ; 

 when the pi^'icnl and indefatigable insects com- 

 menced a third structure of comb. Five times 

 in succession were their works thus comple'ftid 

 and removed, although during the whole of this 

 period they were fed merely with lioney and 

 water, and could not possibly have had access 

 to farina. 



These experiments, so uniform in their re^ 

 suits, give indubitable validity to the fact — that 

 lioney, through the organic intervention of bees, 

 may be converted into wax. A contrary ex- 

 periment was made, by abundantly supplying a 

 hive with fruit and pollen only : but during 

 eight days' confinement the bees produced no 

 wax whatever, nor exhibited any plates under 

 their abdominal rings ; no combs were formed, 

 nor was an atom of farina touched — a clear 

 pioof that farina supplies neither wax nor sus- 

 tenance to adult bees. 1 he improbability of 

 this indeed is evinced by its abundance in hives 

 whose tenants have died of famine. And as to 

 its being the constituent of wax, Reaumur cal- 

 culated that a well-stocked hive might collect at 

 least 100 pounds of pollen in a season, whereas 

 the weight of wax fabricated in the same time 

 would not exceed two pounds. 



Experiments have proved tlie excellence of 

 sugar as a substitute for honey, and in some in- 

 stances its superiority, for the formation of wax. 

 It might otherwise have been supposed that 

 bees might form comb from some particles of 

 wax accidentally present in the honey, and that 

 these afforded the pabulum for this secretion. 

 To prove, therefore, that the saccharine princi- 

 ple alone enabled the bees to produce wax, being 

 still confined, they were supplied with a syrup 

 made Avith Canary-sugar and water, and at the 

 same time comparative experiments were made 

 in another hive, where the bees were fed on 

 honey and water. The syrup-fed bees produced 

 wax sooner and more abundantly than the ho- 

 ney-fed bees. Another fact was also incontro- 

 vertibly elicited ; namely, that in the old hives 

 the honey is Avarehou.sed, and that in the new 

 ones it is consumed and trasmuted into wax. 



The experiments of Huber have been con 

 firmed by those of M. Blondelu, of Noyau, who 

 addressed a memoir upon this subject to the 

 Society of Agriculture at Paris, in May, 1812. 



*To prevent the bees from being impatient, it was found 

 necessary to conduct the experiment in a cool place, as well 

 as to exclude the light. 



