206 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1917 



I 



N Lesson 1 we 

 c o n s i dered 



c 



the various 

 parts of the bee- 

 hive. We found 

 that the average 

 hive consists of 

 six parts — the 



hive - stand, the lesson no. 2 



floor, the hive-body, or brood-chamber, the 

 super, the inner co\or, and the outer cover. 

 The brood-chamber, which might be called 

 the living-room, is the most intsiesling part 

 of the hive. That part belongs to the bees 

 themselves, and it is very rare that the bee- 

 keeper takes away any of the honey which 

 it contains. The honey there is for the 

 bees' own use. The surplus honey is stored 

 in the " super " above the brocd-chamber. 

 In this lesson we shall consider tl:e interior 

 of this brood-chamber, the combs in which 

 the brood is reared and in which the bees 

 store the honey, and something concerning 

 the early life of the bees themselves. 



Many beginners ask where the bees get 

 the wax — whether they gather it oi" make it. 

 Beeswax is a secretion that issues from the 

 wax-glands after the bees have been feeding 

 heavily on honey or on sugar syrup. It is 

 really a fatty secretion, altho beeswax itself 



BEGINNERS' Lessons 



1 



E 



or masticating it, 

 so to speak, it 

 becomes the pli- 

 able and ductile 

 substance used 

 in making the 

 combs. There are 

 many mineral 

 THE INTERIOR OP THE HIVE and vegetable 



waxes that resemble beeswax; but for its 

 ductility beeswax has the highest melting- 

 point of" any wax known. If the honey- 

 combs were made of paraffine, for instance, 



A fullsixed sheet of comb foiinclation which the 

 bees have just begun to draw out into comb. The 

 central part shows the deeper cells. 



is not a fat and is not greasy. The open- 

 ing to these glands is on the under side of 

 the bee's abdomen; and when the wax first 

 issues it is a liquid which soon hardens into 

 pearly-white scales. The bees transfer this 

 wax t(i their mandibles; and bv mixing it, 



W^SSTOWKKWRB^j 



New comb just built. It is creamy white save for 

 an occasional cell containing a little pollen or bee- 

 bread. 



they would not stand the high temperature 

 in the hive, especially on a hot day, but 

 would sag or melt down. 



It has been estimated that bees must con- 

 sume from five to fifteen pounds of honey 

 in order to jDroduce one pound of wax. As 

 explained in the last lesson, in the produc- 

 tion of extracted honey the combs are used 

 over and over again, so that the bees do not 

 have to build new ones each time. In mak- 

 ing comb honey in the small sections, the 

 comb is sold right with the honey, of course, 

 and the bees must necessarily build new 

 combs when the finished sections are taken 

 away. For this reason a colony of bees can 

 produce only about half as much comb 

 honey as they could of extracted honey. 



For more than forty years what is knowi 

 as " comb foundation " has been used by 

 practically all beekeepers. A very thin 

 sheet of wax is run thru two metal rollers 

 on which is stamped a representation of the 

 base of the cells of the honeycomb. When 

 the sheet of wax is run thru these rolls it 



.\n onlarged view of comb foundation. At the left the wa.x 

 the cells on the right have been partially drawn out by the bees, 

 base of the cells. 



^ shown just as it comes from the rolls: 

 The reinforcing wire is shown at the 



