208 



NATURE-STUDY 



All summer long the honey is stored up in the combs, 

 which are made of six-sided cells in two layers, end to end. 

 The wax is an excretion sweated out of the pores between the 

 abdominal segments of the workers. This they scrape off 

 with their feet, and knead and work into comb with their jaws. 



Honey is more than 

 the nectar gathered from 

 the flowers. The bee 

 takes the nectar into its 

 honey-crop, not stomach, 

 where, though it does 

 not undergo digestion, it 

 is in some way changed 

 so that it is different from 

 the nectar. This is dis- 

 gorged into the cells of 

 the honey combs, and the 

 bee adds a small amount 

 of formic acid as a pre- 

 servative. It is also prob- 

 able that some water is 

 removed from the nectar while it is in the crop. The honey 

 is further condensed in the cells, and most of the volatile oils 

 are evaporated from it. Then the cells are sealed with a cap 

 of wax. The honey generally retains some of the aroma 

 of the flowers from which the nectar was collected. Thus 

 we can distinguish basswood, clover, or buckwheat honey. 

 The bees confine themselves chiefly to the principal flowers 

 out at different times, so the honey is pure rather than mixed 

 in the combs. Among the flowers visited by bees for pollen 

 and nectar are those of the willow, maple, currant, fruit trees, 



FIG. 69. Hornet's Nest. 



