1907 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



THE STORY OF HONEY C03IB. 



1019 



How it is Built: Why tlie Cells are Six 

 sided; Cross-section Views of Cells from 

 Comb Built at Right Angles to (lilass; 

 the ^^'ise Man and the Fool. 



BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW. 



LThe following article by Prof. E. P. Bigelow, the 

 nature-study man, lecturer, and one of the editors of 

 St. Nicholas Magazine on the subject of honey-comb, 

 its construction and development, is one of the best if 

 not the best that was ever written. The photographs 

 are superb, and instructive as well as interesting. 

 The article as a whole will be incorporated in the next 

 edition of our A B C of Bee Culture, now in process 

 of revision, and, later on, made the subject of a spe- 

 cial booklet —Ed.] 



For many years the theories as to wax- 

 production were far from the truth. Some- 

 where between 1744 and 17G8 it was discov- 

 ered that wax is produced between the plates 

 on the lower side of the worker bee's abdo- 

 men. The honor of this discoveiy is usually 

 ascribed to a Lvisatian peasant of unknown 

 name. But Thorley, a quaint writer of 1744, 

 speaks of "six pieces of solid wax, white and 

 transparent like gum within the plaits." 



Wax is produced at the will of the bee, ana 

 when called for by the necessities of the 

 hive. The wax-producing bees obtain a 

 somewhat high temperatui'e usually by close 

 clustering, although they sometimes hang in 

 slender festoons and chains. 



"Wax is not chemically a fat or glyceride, 

 and those who have called it ' the fat of 

 bees' have grossly erred; yet it is nearly al- 

 lied to the fats in atomic constitution, and 

 the physiological conditions favoring the for- 

 mation of one are curiously similar to those 

 aiding in the production of the other. We 

 put our poultry up to fat in confinement, 

 with partial light; to secure bodily inactivity 

 we keep warm and feed highly. Our bees, 

 under Nature's teaching, put themselves up 

 to yield wax under conditions so parallel that 



FIG. 2. -CIRCULAR CELLS 

 The elongated-attachment cells much resemble the soap-bubble 

 forms shown in Fig. 3. 



FIG. 1.— EDGE OF HONEYCOMB BUILT NEXT 

 TO GLASS— ENLARGED VIEW. 

 The cells are partly tilled with honey. This illus- 

 tration shows that the cells are not straight and hor 

 izontal, but curved and slanting upward. 



the suitability of the fatting-coop 

 is vindicated. ' ' — (Jlieshire. 



On the inner side of the eight 

 plates lining the lower side of the 

 abdomen are about 140,000 glands 

 (Cheshire), from which thewax is 

 secreted as a white liquid, which 

 hardens on exposure to the air. 

 When first formed it is white and 

 very brittle, and is pulled out 

 from between the plates by the 

 pincei's on the hind legs. The 

 pieces of wax are then passed to 

 the front legs, and thence to the 

 mouth, where they are made plas- 

 tic by the addition of various ma- 

 terials in the saliva and by thor- 

 ough mastication. 



From this raw material the 

 sculpture bees make three kinds 

 of cells. First, at certain times 

 of the year, when a new queen is 

 needed, they build a few large, 

 almost perpendicular, peanut- 

 shaped cells. The two other 



