268 ENTOMOLOGY 



sac, located in the abdomen, for transportation to the hive. Besides 

 being thin, the nectar has at first a raw, rank taste, generally the flavor 

 and odor peculiar to the plant from which gathered, and these are fre- 

 quently far from agreeable. To make from this raw product the health- 

 ful and delicious table luxury which honey constitutes "fit food for the 

 gods" is another of the functions peculiar to the worker bee. The 

 first step is the stationing of workers in lines near the hive entrances. 

 These, by incessant buzzing of their wings, drive currents of air into and 

 out of the hive and over the comb surfaces. If the hand be held before 

 the entrance at such a time a strong current of warm air may be felt 

 coming out. The loud buzzing heard at night during the summer time 

 is due to the wings of workers engaged chiefly in ripening nectar. In- 

 stead of being at rest, as many suppose, the busy workers are caring for 

 the last-gathered lot of nectar and making room for further accessions. 

 This may go on far into the night, or even all night, to a greater or less 

 extent, the loudness and activity being proportionate to the amount and 

 thinness of the liquid. Frequently the ripening honey is removed from 

 one set of cells and placed in others. This may be to gain the use of 

 certain combs for the queen, or possibly it is merely incidental to the 

 manipulation the bees wish to give it. When, finally, the process has 

 been completed, it is found that the water content has usually been re- 

 duced to 10 or 12 per cent., and that the disagreeable odors and flavors, 

 probably due to volatile oils, have also been driven off in a great measure, 

 if not wholly, by the heat of the hive, largely generated by the bees. 

 During the manipulation an antiseptic (formic acid), secreted by glands 

 in the head of the bee, and possibly other glandular secretions as well 

 have been added. The finished product is stored in waxen cells above 

 and around the brood nest and the main cluster of bees, as far from the 

 entrance as it can be and still be near to the brood and bees. The work 

 of sealing with waxen caps then goes forward rapidly, the covering being 

 more or less porous. Each kind of honey has its distinctive flavor and 

 aroma, derived, as already indicated, mainly from the particular blossoms 

 by which it was secreted, but modified and softened by the manipulation 

 given it in the hives. The last three paragraphs are taken from Ben- 

 ton's useful manual. 



The phenomenon of "swarming" results from the tremendous re- 

 productive capacity of the queen, though it is immediately an instance 

 of positive phototropism, as Kellogg has shown. Accompanied by most of 

 the workers, the old queen abandons the hive to establish a new colony. 

 The workers that remain behind have provided against this contingency, 



