24 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 



white sage, mesquite, sourwood, aster, tulip tree, mangrove, orange, and 

 other kinds of honey may be harvested separately, and cadi be readily 

 recognizable by its color, flavor, consistency, and aroma. When, how- 

 ever, no great honey yielder is present in large quantity and the source is 

 miscellaneous, all manner of combinations of qualities may exist, intro- 

 ducing great and often agreeable variety. Thus the medicinal qualities 

 and the food value of different kinds of honey differ as greatly as do 

 their prices on the market. 



PROPOLIS. 



This substance, commonly known as "bee glue," is obtained by the 

 bees from the buds and crevices of trees, and is carried to the hives in 

 the corbicula or basket-like cavities on the outside of the tibial joints 

 of the workers' hind legs, the same as they carry pollen. The workers 

 with their mandibles scrape together and bite off' the particles of pro- 

 polis, and with the front and middle legs pass them back to the baskets, 

 where the middle legs and feet are used to tamp them down. The 

 pellets can be readily distinguished from those of pollen, the latter 

 being dull and granular in appearance, while the freshly gathered 

 propolis is compact and shiny. This resinous material, which becomes 

 hard soon after it is gathered, is at first quite sticky, and the bee bring- 

 ing it requires aid in unloading. Another worker takes hold of the 

 mass with its jaws, and by united exertion they get it out of the pocket, 

 though often by piecemeal and in long threads. It is not stored in cells, 

 but is used at once to stop up crevices in the hives and to varnish the 

 whole interior surface, as well as to glue movable portions fast, also in 

 strengthening the combs at their attachments, and if the latter are 

 designed exclusively for honey, and especially if not filled at once, the 

 edges of their completed cells receive a thin coating of propolis, which 

 adds considerably to their strength. The bees often make the flight 

 hole smaller by filling a part of it with masses of propolis, sometimes 

 mixed with old wax. Carniolans gather the least and Tunisians the 

 most propolis of any of the different races. On this account the former 

 are better suited than the latter to the production of fancy white 

 comb honey. 



BEE POISON AND THE STING. 



The worker and the queen are supplied with another organ which is 

 of great importance to them, namely, the sting; for without this the 

 hard-earned stores of the hive would soon be a prey to all manner of 

 marauders, and the queen would be deprived of an organ of occasional 

 use to her in dispatching rivals, and of daily use to her during the 

 working season in the deposition of eggs. The darts work independ- 

 ently and alternately, and are connected at the base with the poison 

 sac, without whose powerful contents such a tiny weapon would be 

 wholly ineffective. Poison glands pour an acid secretion largely 

 formic acid into this sac, whence it is conveyed to the tip of the sting 



