482 



KA RMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



Bees arc seen laden with a yellowish substance, 

 in very considerable (quantities, which also is 

 stored up in the hive. This is not wax, as is 

 commonly supposed, Iiut either the pollen of flow- 

 ers, which is used for ftjeding their young, or 

 propolis for stopping the crevices of their dwelling. 

 The combs are constructed of v/ax, which owes 

 its origin to honey : or it may he foinied from su- 

 gar, the saccharine part of which constitutes one 

 principal ingredient of honey. Naturalists have 

 adopted many conjectures concerning the mode in 

 which it is elaborated by the bees. In general 

 they supposed that the yellowish pellets adhering 

 to their limbs were swallowed, and afterwards 

 disforo-ed as wax in a state of purity. The pro- 

 cess is still obscure, but recent experiments seem 

 to aflbrd reason for believing that it may transude 

 between the scales of the abdomen ; and the ap- 

 pearance presented by wax on such places led 

 former observers to alHrm, that it was collected 

 there instead of on the limbs. It is established by 

 satisfactory experiments, that, whatever be its 

 issue (i-orn the body of the bee, it originates from 

 honey. Mutual relations subsist in their elemen- 

 tary principles, and the one is dependent on the 

 other. Those years unproductive of the honey 

 are also unproductive of wax; and we often see 

 swarms which begin thcircollections with the most 

 promising appearance, still make but little pro- 

 gress, and terminate with acquiring too small a 

 quantity of honey for iheir future subsistonce. [n 

 these cases, wax is sparingly provided also. 

 What led to a narrow investigation of the prepa- 

 ration ol" honey from wax, was a naturalist obser- 

 ving that bees continued carrying quantities of 

 the yellow pellets or pollen into hives quite full of 

 comb, and where there was no room to construct 

 more; and on the other hand, that they enlarged 

 the combs of hives containing only a small por- 

 tion, and did so without carrying in the pellets at 

 all. Succeeding experiments proved that the pol- 

 len which they collect from the antheraj of flow- 

 ers, is used solely for feeding their young, being 

 the same which, in ordinary description, we call 

 farina, or bee-bread; and that they will take it 

 grain by grain in their teeth, to transmit it into the 

 mouths of the larva;: a remarkable trail of patient 

 industry. In ascertaining the mode by which wax 

 was produced from honey, JNl. Huber confined a 

 swarm of bees in a straw hive to an apartment, 

 along with a quantity of honey and water neces- 

 sary for their subsistence. The honey was ex- 

 hausted in five days, and five combs of the finest 

 enow- white wax were tlien found suspended li'om 

 the arch of the hive. Lest this might have been 

 the produce of t!ie liirina carried in by the bees 

 when their confiiicment commenced, all the combs 

 were removed, and the imprisonment of the bees 

 repeated. But the result was the same; they form- 

 ed other five combs of" the finest and whitest wax. 

 It is the saccharine part of the honey which pro- 

 duces wax ; and bees supplied with ecjual portions 

 of honey, and of sugar reduced to a syrup, pro- 

 duce a greater quantity of wax from the latter. 

 From a pound of refined sugar reduced to a syrup, 

 and clarified with eggs, a swarm of bees produced 

 ten drams and fifry-lwo grains of wax, darker in 

 color than what they extract from hoiioy: irom a 

 pound of dark brown sugar, they prepared twenty- 

 two drams of very white wax, and the like liom 

 the same weight of sugar from the maple. Wax 



is produced sooner, as well aa in greater propor- 

 tion, from sugar than from honey; and the darker 

 the sugar, the finer is the wax. Repeated obser- 

 vations prove, that the secretion of honey in flow- 

 ers is powerfully promoted by the electricity of the 

 atmosphere; and L)ee3 never labor more actively 

 than during humid sultry weather, and wlien a 

 storm is approaching. Sometimes the secretion 

 of honey is entirely suspended by the state of the 

 weather, which occasions a total interruption of 

 the labors of the bees ; and if this be too long pro- 

 tracted, a populous hive may actually die in the 

 midst of summer. The odor exhaled by the 

 hives, and the size of the bees, are always certain 

 indications whether the flowers contain honey. 

 When numbers of bees return from their excur- 

 sions v.'ith the belly thick and cylindrical, it shows 

 they are gorged with honey; and these are exclu- 

 sively the workers in wax. The belly of those 

 performing the other functions, always preserves 

 its ovoidal form, and does not sensibly increase in 

 size. Although the floweis be destitute of honey, 

 bees still are able to store up quantities of liirina 

 or pollen necessary for feeding their young. Part 

 of it is immediately given to them, and, as is af- 

 firmed, what is superfluous is reserved in cells. 

 Sixly-five hives, the whole of which exhibited 

 workers in wax, were examined on the ISlh of 

 June, when the country was covered with flowers, 

 and while the bees actively pursued their collec- 

 tions. Those returning to old hives, having no 

 cells to construct, deposited their honey in the 

 combs, or gave to their companions ; but those o! 

 new swarms converted their honey into wax, and 

 hastened to build combs lor the reception of their 

 young. Chilly and showery weather interrupted 

 their labors, and the combs received no addition by 

 the construction of new cells. The weather how- 

 ever altered, the chestnut and elm were in flow- 

 er, and the thermometer on the first of July rose 

 to 77° : the bees resumed their labors with the ut- 

 most activity from that day until the 16th, both in 

 honey and wax. But thenceforward no honey 

 being produced, they collected quantities ol" pollen 

 only ; and the odor of the flowers showed there 

 was nothing excepting an inconsiderable secretion 

 of honey at intervals, barely sufficient for subsist- 

 ing ihe bees. It was found, on examining the 

 sixty-five hives in the end of August, that, after 

 the middle of July, the bees had ceased to work 

 in wax ; that they had stored up a great quantity 

 of" pollen ; that the honey of the old hives was 

 very much diminished, and in the new ones scarce 

 any remained; as what was at first collected had 

 been consumed in the preparation of wax. Thus 

 it appears, that, in the natural state, honey is the 

 source of wax, and the food of bees ; tliat its se- 

 cretion from flowers is afl'ected by adventitious cir- 

 cumstances; and that its qualities are different in 

 different countries. No elementary principles of 

 wax reside in pollen ; this substance is collect- 

 ed solely to lijed the young contained in hives, 

 and the perf"ect bees themselves never live upon 

 it. 



The propolis is another substance collected from 

 plants, which is extremely useful to bees. Besides 

 the purposes of stopping crevices, covering the 

 interior surface of the hive, the sticks supporting 

 the combs, and glueing the hive to the board on 

 which it stands, bees employ it in greater portions 

 at once. Stransrer animals of small size entering 



