282 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



been deposited and transferred into a queen cell, which is pre- 

 prepared for the purpose, and by a peculiar feed called royal 

 jelly it becomes a perfectly developed queen or mother. 



Bee Glue. — There is a great disposition among bees to coat 

 over every part of the interior of the hive. This is done chiefly 

 by what is called bee glue. This is not a secretion from the 

 bee, as some have supposed. It is a substance which is gathered 

 or scraped from the bark and leaves of trees. It is used as a 

 kind of cement in attaching the comb to the hive, and in closing 

 up the joints and crevices of the hive, and for general coating 

 purposes. When dry, it is much stiffer and harder than the 

 wax of which the comb is built, and well adapted to the purpose 

 for which it is employed. 



Wax. — This is a secretion from the bee, which exudes from 

 the body like a thick sort of perspiration, between the rings of 

 the abdomen, which seem to be connected by so many joints or 

 hinges. This is employed in the construction of the comb. 

 As the instruments are very small which are used by the bees, 

 the wax must be very warm or soft in order to be wrought by 

 them. Here we see why a small swarm of bees never prosper 

 in a very large hive. Not because they are discouraged by the 

 extent of space to be filled, but because they are unable by clus- 

 tering together to get up (" steam ") a sufficient degree of ani- 

 mal heat in order to mould the wax. 



Honey.— This is the proper and only food of the mature bees 

 at all seasons of the year. The queen, the drone and the worker 

 subsist upon it. It is collected from a very great variety of 

 blossoms. I shall not attempt to enumerate all the sources 

 from which it is gathered. Early in spring the bees work 

 upon the willows and alders which are found in our swamps, 

 more for the pollen which is found upon them 'than for the 

 quantity of honey which they contain. Next they resort to the 

 cherry-tree, the pear-tree, and the apple-tree blossoms : subse- 

 quently to the white clover. This usually furnishes the greatest 

 supply of honey, more, I am inclined to think, taking one season 

 with another, than all other things in the climate of New Eng- 

 land. They rarely, if ever, work upon red clover, from the fact 



