COMB. 73 



day.* Thus no time is lost. When the weather is too 

 forbidding for out-door work, the combs are most rapidly 

 constructed, the labor being vigorously carried on both 

 by day and by night. On the return of a fair day, the 

 bees, having plenty of room for its storage, gather unusual 

 supplies. Thus, by their wise economy, they often lose 

 no time, even if confined for several days to their hive. 



" How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour !" 



The poet might, with equal truth, have described her 

 as improving the gloomy days and dark nights in her use- 

 ful labors. 



It is an interesting fact, which seems hitherto to have 

 escaped notice, that honey-gathering and comb-building 

 go on simultaneously ; so that when one stops, the other 

 ceases also. As soon as the honey-harvest begins to fail, 

 so that consumption is in advance of production, the bees 

 cease to build new comb, even although large portions of 

 their hive are unfilled. When honey no longer abounds 

 in the fields, it is wisely ordered that they should not con- 

 sume, in comb-building, the treasures which may be need- 

 ed for Winter use. What safer rule could have been 

 given them ? 



As wax is a bad conductor, it can be more easily work- 

 ed when warmed by the animal heat of the bees, than if it 

 parted with its heat too readily. By this property, the 

 combs aid in keeping the bees warm, and there is less 

 risk of their cracking with frost, or of the honey candying 

 in the cells. If wax were a good conductor of heat, the 

 combs would often be icy cold, moisture would condense 

 and freeze upon them, and they could not fulfill all their 

 required ends. 



* On very c^ear moonlight nights, I have known bees to gather honey rro::i the 

 tulip tree (TAriodendron tulipfera). 



4 



