354- ARCHITECTURE OF BEES. 



The finest honey is stored in new cells, constructed 

 for the purpose of receiving it, their configuration 

 resembling precisely the common breeding-cells : 

 these honey-cells vary in size, being made more 

 or less capacious, according to the productiveness 

 of the sources from which the bees are collecting, 

 and according to the season of the year : the cells 

 formed in July and August vary in their dimen- 

 sions from those that are formed earlier ; being 

 intended for honey only, they are larger and 

 deeper, the texture of their walls is thinner, and 

 they have more dip or inclination : this dip di- 

 minishes the risk of the honey's running out, 

 which from the heat of the weather, and the con- 

 sequent thinness of the honey, at this season of the 

 year, it might otherwise be liable to do. When 

 the cells, intended for holding the winter's pro- 

 vision, are filled, they are always closed with waxen 

 lids, and never re-opened till the w r hole of the 

 honey in the unfilled cells has been expended. 

 The waxen lids are thus formed ; The bees first 

 construct a ring of wax within the verge of the 

 cell, to which other rings are successively added, 

 till the aperture of the cell is finally closed with 

 a lid composed of concentric circles. 



The brood-cells, when their tenants have at- 

 tained a certain age, are also covered with waxen 

 lids, like the honey-cells ; the lids differ a little, 

 the latter being somewhat concave, the former 



