ONE YEAR AMONG THE BEES 



117 



FIG. 15. The extractor with inside gearing raised up and exposed to view. 



save all the comb, and the saving of a pound of comb is equal to the 

 saving of fifteen pounds of honey. Wax is not gathered from flow- 

 ers in any quantity that bees see fit to carry it in, but it is a produc- 

 tion of their own, produced by the consumption of their food, honey. 

 Wax is formed in the bee on the same principle that fat is formed in 

 an animal, the difference being only in the locality in which it is 

 deposited. Each worker bee has six wax pockets located between 

 the rings on the under side of the body, three on each side of the 

 dividing line in center of body. Wax forms in these little pockets 

 in disks resembling small fish scales, and can plainly be seen during 

 the comb-building season, protruding from these wax pockets. Now 

 there are, perhaps, many who will read this, and who used to keep 



