360 BEES-WAX* 



wax nor sustenance to adult bees. The impro- 

 bability of this indeed is evinced by its abundance 

 in hives whose tenants have died of famine. And 

 as to its being the constituent of wax, REAU- 

 MUR calculated that a well stocked hive might 

 collect at least 100 pounds of pollen in a season, 

 whereas the weight of wax fabricated in the same 

 time would not exceed two pounds. 



Experiments have proved the excellence of 

 sugar as a substitute for honey, and in some in- 

 stances its superiority for the formation of wax. 

 It might otherwise have been supposed that bees 

 might form comb from some particles of wax 

 accidentally present in the honey, and that these 

 afforded the pabulum for this secretion. To prove 

 therefore that the saccharine principle alone ena- 

 bled the bees to produce wax, being still confined, 

 they were supplied with a syrup made with Ca- 

 nary-sugar and water, and at the same time 

 comparative experiments were made in another 

 hive, where the bees were fed on honey and 

 water. The syrup-fed bees produced wax sooner 

 and more abundantly than the honey-fed bees. 

 Another fact was also incontrovertibly elicited ; 

 namely, that in the old hives the honey is ware- 

 housed, and that in the new ones it is consumed 

 and transmuted into wax. 



The experiments of HUBER have been con- 

 firmed by those of M. BLONDELU, of Noyau, 



