1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



53 



[Translated from the Bienenzeitung.l 



Extracts From the Proceedings of the German 

 Bee-Keepers' Convention, Held at Latz- 



bnrg, Sept. 10, 11 and 12, 1872. 

 [continued from last number.] 



The Production of Wax is Therefore a Secret 

 of the Bee, 



A second question is, whether the wax is 

 made out of the honey, out of the saccharine 

 matter of the nectar, or out of that mixed with 

 pollen. 



The observations which Huber, Grundlach, 

 Dumas, and Milne-Edward have made concern- 

 ing the production of wax have demonstrated 

 that only by honey feeding will the bees pro- 

 duce wax. The bee-keepers have also demon- 

 strated that the production of wax only con- 

 tinues for a certain time. Baron von Berelepsch 

 says that the bees will for from sixteen to 

 eighteen days continue building and rearing 

 "brood, when fed upon honey alone, although 

 owing to the long confinement many dead bees 

 with swollen abdomens lie on the floor beneath. 

 The death rate increases from day to day, the 

 most of the bees becoming weak and enerva- 

 ted. 



Prof. Voit, in Munich, with the help of these 

 observations and his theory concerning the pro- 

 duction of fat as developed in his essay, "Con- 

 cerning the Production of Pat in Animal 

 Bodies," undertakes to prove that bees do not 

 produce the wax out of hydrated carbon. 



Voit, in his essay, proceeds thus : " Beautiful- 

 ly does Berlepsch show the influence of albume- 

 nous holding pollen upon the production of 

 wax. In hive No. 1 he places combs filled with 

 pollen, weighing 1,315 gramms, and six bars 

 with 66 gramms of wax foundations. In stock 

 No. 2, he placed empty combs and likewise six 

 frames with 66 gramms wax foundations. The 

 bees of each stock weighed 1,035 gramms, 

 and had 2,838 gramms honey. After ten days 

 the combs were taken out and examined to see 

 how much new wax appeared to have been 

 made. The combs of stock No. 2 weighed, in- 

 cluding the honey, 1,118 gramms more than the 

 wax foundations, and without the honey 51 

 gramms more, hence it appears that the increase 

 of wax was 51 gramms, and that too with honey 

 for their only food ; there has then been ab- 

 sorbed in the body of the bees 1,272 gramms, 

 and 1,066 gramms placed in the combs. The 

 combs in hive No. 1 weigh, together with the 

 inclosed honey, 1,049 gramms more than the 

 wax foundations, and without honey, 84 gramms, 

 hence the wax amounts to 84 gramms ; in the 

 combs are 965 gramms honey deposited, and in 

 the body of the bees 1,257 gramms honey, and 

 117 gramms of honey used. This 117 gramms 

 pollen supplied the 33 gramms of wax, over that 

 obtained from feedinfj pure honey. This con- 



clusion need not awaken any wonder unless 

 judged by preconceived ideas. When we be- 

 lieve that wax is the product of the body of the 

 bee it is very clear that any cause injuring the 

 health of the bee will aflfect the supply of the 

 wax ; hence the exclusion of nitrogenous food. 

 With honey alone the bee sickens; with nitro- 

 genous food, however, they remain healthy and 

 maintain the working energy of the bee, but 

 with honey alone the 1,032 gramms of bees pro- 

 duced 51 gramms wax ; when one understands 

 that 45 parts of wax can be produced from 100 

 parts of dried albumen, he will easily compre- 

 hend that 1,052 gramms bees had to produce 

 455 gramms albumen in its natural state con- 

 taining 75 per cent, water), and to furnish this 

 material for the wax building, that had to pro- 

 duce 40 per cent, of fluid albumen from their 

 bodies, thus diminishing their bodily weight 

 that much. This is rather improbable. 



According to Voit in the above experiment, 

 the 117 gramms pollen, representing albumen, 

 supplies the 33 gramms wax. But from my ob- 

 servations, the pollen gathered by the bees and 

 placed in the cells contains but two, at the 

 highest, but three per cent, nitrogen together 

 with from 12.8 to 19.2 per cent, of albumen. 

 Voit divides 100 gramms albumen in 23.5 urea, 

 51.4 fat, or 46.8 unc acid, and 46.7 fat ; conse- 

 quently according to my analysis the known 

 quantity of albumen in 100 gramms of pollen 

 would be only from 6 5 to 9.8 gramms fat, or 

 from 5.7 to 8.9 gramms fat; just in such propor- 

 tion as would allow 100 gramms albumen to 

 contain 51.4 or 46.7 gramms of fat; in 100 

 gramms pollen there may be 7.6 to 11.4 gramms 

 fat or from 6.9 to 19.4 giammsfat, and less wax, 

 since the quantity of carbon in wax is usually 

 higher than that in the fat ; the quantity of car- 

 bon in 94 sframms of wax equals that in 100 

 parts of fat, also 6.9 fat, 6.5 wax, and 10.4 fat, 

 9.7 wax. 



There is no possibility hence, that the 33 

 gramms of wax was supplied by the albumen of 

 the pollen, since 117 gramms pollen are not 117 

 gramms albumen. 



This interesting investigation does not then 

 prove that the bees produce wax from the albu- 

 men of the pollen ; one sees that the quantity of 

 albumen in pollen will fall far short of what is 

 needed to supply a large quantity of wax. The 

 bees must eat pollen out of all proportions to 

 produce wax rrom the albumen alone. The 

 objection that the pollen used by Berlepsch 

 has not been analyzed so as to obtain the quan- 

 tity of nitrogenous matter contained in it, can 

 have no force against my conclusions, for even 

 analysis of pollen gathered by the bees show 

 very slight variations from each other. 



We can hence say, 



2. That wax is produced chief y hy bees from 

 the saccharine matter they gather, and is coiir 

 till cd only by the use of nitrogen nui food. 



