154 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



October 



make an experimentation. If we form 

 seven paper cylinders and set six of 

 them around the seventh, press the 

 walls of every three cylinders forming 

 a three cornered piece together, so the 

 seventh middle cylinder will get the 

 hexagonal form. In the same way, 

 the cell is pulled to the hexagonal 

 form and by this pulling the bottom 

 of the cell, at first flat, will get the 

 well-known pyramidal form. 



If a part of a cell is built in a rough 

 manner the bees make it smooth by 

 wetting the wax with saliva, which 

 easily dissolves the wax. The tongue 

 is the brush and the tongue-bone the 

 trowel. 



The queen-cells are circular and re- 

 main so, because no neighboring cells 

 are there. These queen-cells are ex- 

 tremely strong and more wax is added 

 outside of the cell; this outside wax 

 is fastened in circular form again, and 

 we can call them cell-starters. If 

 some of them touch others, they are 

 pressed together in the way described 

 and we find again the hexagonal and 

 pyramidal form. 



The cappings of the honey cells are 

 of pure wax and as Schoenfield says, 

 it is easy to understand how they are 

 made. But I find in another bee- 

 paper quoted from Mr, Cheshire's 

 book the following idea. 



"The horizontal position of the cell 

 prevents their being perfectly filled 

 first and covered afterwards; but the 

 bees when the cell is approaching 

 fullness, cap its lower part, then add 

 honey and increase the cover placing 

 shred upon shred after the manner a 

 turf wall is built until the process is 

 complete." 



This is at least inaccurate. The 



horizontal position of the cells does 

 never premit their being perfectly 

 filled. I have many times observed 

 uncapped honey-combs, quite full*? if 

 we look along such a comb from the 

 side we can see that the honey in the 

 cell reaches even farther outside than 

 the sidewalks of the cell. This is pos- 

 sible by adhesion in the same way 

 the surface of the mercury in a ba- 

 rometer forms sometimes a hemis- 

 phere. So the cells can be more than 

 full of honey. 



Further we will see, that the walls 

 of the cell to be capped are thicker 

 en the border and more round than 

 hexagoual on the extreme sides. Here 

 is the wax laid down, which will form 

 the cappings. 



The bees act quite the same as in 

 comb building; they clasp this side 

 by the jaws and pull the wax against 

 the centre of the cell. A last a small 

 hole is left in the centre and this is 

 closed with wax shreds. Cells not 

 quite capped surely every practical 

 bee-keeper has observed, but I doubt 

 if he ever saw a cell with, say half a 

 capping on the lower part of the cell. 



The cappings of the brood look 

 quite different and some affirm that 

 these brood-cappings are built of wax 

 and pollen. New examinations of 

 von Planta have proven that these 

 cappings contain much pollen and 

 more pollen grains; but it is not 

 probable that the bees use freshly 

 gathered pollen to build the brood- 

 cappings. The color of them is against 

 this idea. 



The fact is that the bees use for the 

 brood-cappings nothing else but the 

 wax of the combs. This wax contains 

 more or less pollen and so do the cap- 



