222 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL- AND GAZETTE. 



their ordinary instinct ? On tlie contrary, tliey 

 now placed a nearly flat lid upon these large 

 cells, as if well aware of their being occnpied 

 by a difiereut race of inhabitants. 



On some occasions bees, in consequence of 

 Iliiher's arrangement in the interior of their 

 habitations, have begun to build a comb nearer 

 to the adjoining one than the usual interval: 

 but they soon appeared to see their error, and 

 corrected it by giving to the comb a gi'adual 

 curvature, so as to resume the ordimirj' distance. 



In another instance in which Tariv'>us irn §•- 

 i;larities had taken place in the form of the 

 combs, the bees, in prolonging one of them, had, 

 contrary to their usual custom, begun two 

 separate and distinct continuations, wliich in 

 approaching instead of joining would have in- 

 terfered with eacli other, had not the bees, ap- 

 paiently foreseeing the ditficiiltj', ' gradually 

 bent their edges so as to make them join with 

 sucli exactness that they could afterwards con- 

 tinue them conjointly. 



In constructing their combs, bees form the 

 first range of cells — that by which the comb is 

 attached to the top of the hive — of a different 

 shape from the rest. Each cell, instead of being 

 hexagonal, is pcntag^onal, having tlie fifth 

 broadest side fixed to the top of the hive, whence 

 the comb is much more securely cemented to 

 that part than if tlie first range of cells had 

 been of the ordinaiy construction. For some 

 time after their fabrication the combs remain 

 in this state ; but at a certain period the bees 

 attack the first range of cells as if in fury, gnaw 

 away the sides without touching the lozenge- 

 shaped bottoms ; and liaving mixed the wax 

 with propolis, they form a cement well known 

 to tlie ancients under the name of Mitya, Com- 

 mos-iii, and Pissoccros, which they substitute in 

 the place of the removed sides oi' the cells, form- 

 ing of it thick and massive walls and heavy 

 and shapeless pillars, which they introduce 

 between the comb and the top of the hive so as 

 to agglutinate them firml}': together. Huber, 

 whofirst in modern times witnessed this remark- 

 al)le modification of the a;rchitecture of bees, 

 observed that not only are they careful not to 

 touch the bottoms of the cells, but that they do 

 not remove -At once tlie cells on both sides of 

 the comb, which in that case mig-ht fall" down ; 

 but tiiey work alternately, first on one side and 

 then on the other, replacing the demolished 

 cells as they proceed with mitys, which firmly 

 fixes the comb to its support. 



Tlie object of this substitiition of mitys for 

 wax seems clear. While the combs are new 

 and only partially filled with honey, the first 

 range of cells, originally established as the base 

 and the guide for the pyramidal bottoms of the 

 subsequent ones, serve as a sufficient support 

 for them ; but when they contain a store of sev- 

 eralH)ouiids, the bees seem to foresee the dan- 

 ger of such a weight proving too heavy for the 

 thin waxen walls by which the combs are sus- 

 pended, and providently Iiasten to substitute 

 for them thicker walls, and pillars of a more 

 comiiact and visrid material. 



But their foresight does not stop here. When 

 they have sufficient wax, they make their combs 

 jf such a breadtli us to extend to the sides of the 



hive, to which they cement them by construc- 

 tions approaching more or less to the shape of 

 cells. But when a scarcity of wax happens be- 

 fore they have been able to give to their combs 

 the requisite diameter, a large vacant space is 

 left between the edges of these combs, which 

 are only fixed by their upper part, and the sides 

 of the hive ; and tliey might be pulled down by 

 the weight of the honey, did not the bees en- 

 sure their stability by introducing large irreg- 

 ular masses of wax between their edges and 

 the sides of tlie hive. A striking instance of 

 this art of securing their magazines occurred to 

 Huber. A comb, not having been originally 

 well fastened to .the top of his glass hive, fell 

 down during the winter amongst the other 

 combs, preserving, however, itsparallelrsm with 

 them. The bees could not fill up the space be- 

 tween its upper edge and the top of the hive, 

 because they never construct combs of old wax, 

 and they had not then an opportunity of pro- 

 ducing new : at a more favorable season they 

 would not have hesitated to build a new comb 

 upon the old one; butitbeinginexpedientat that 

 period to expend their provision of honey in 

 the elaboration of wax, they provided for the 

 stability of the fallen comb by another process. 

 They furnished themselves with wax from the 

 other combs, by gnawing away the rims of the 

 cells nfore elongated than the rest, and then 

 betook themselves in crowds, some iTpon the 

 edges of the fallen comb, others between its 

 sides and those of the adjoining combs ; and 

 there securely fixed it, by constrncting- several 

 iieit of different shapes between it and the glass 

 of the hive: some were pillars, others buttresses, 

 and others beams artfully disposed and adapted 

 to the localities of the surfaces joined. "Nor 

 did they content themselves with repairing the 

 accidents which their masonry had experienced; 

 they provided against those Avhich might hap- 

 pen, and appeared to profit by the warning 

 given by the fall of one of the combs to consol- 

 idate the others, and prevent a second accident of 

 the same nature. These last had not been dis- 

 placed and appeared sfflidly attached by theii- 

 base ; whence' Huber was not a little surprised to 

 see the bees strengthen their principal points of 

 connection by making them much thicker than 

 before with old wax, and forming numerous ties 

 and braces to unite them more closely to each 

 other and to the walls of their habitation. What 

 was still more extraordinary, all this happened 

 in the middle of January, at a period when the 

 bees ordinarily cluster at the top of the hive, 

 and do not engage in labors of this kind. 



You will admit, I think, that 'these proofs of 

 the resources of the architectural instinct of 

 bees are truly admirable. If, in the case of the 

 substitution ot mitys for the first range of waxen 

 cells, this procedure invariably took place iu 

 CTcr// bee-hive at a fixed period— when, for ex- 

 ample, the combs are two thirds filled with 

 honey—it would be less surprising ; but there 

 is nothing of this invariable character about it. 

 It does not, as Huber expressly informs us, oc- 

 cur at any marked and regular period, but ap- 

 pears to depend on several circumstances not 

 always combined. Sometimes the bees content 

 tkcmsclves with bordering the sides of the upper 



