THE BEE NATION. 247 



of the wax, which is both costly and difficult to make. 

 The fastening of the combs to the walls of the hive is also 

 generally done by help of propolis, or of a mixture of pro- 

 polis and wax. In the same way combs over-weighted with 

 lioney and threatening to break from their upper attach- 

 ments, are so well supported and fastened with strung bands 

 of propolis above and at the sides, that the peril is smoothed 

 away. F. Huber saw such a comb which had really fallen 

 down, but had kept in a proper position with respect to the 

 other combs, at a time when there was not sufficient store of 

 wax to fill up the empty space with new cells, fastened by 

 such bauds to the nearest comb on one side, and on the 

 other to the neighboring glass wall of the hive. They also 

 took warning from this unpleasant experience, and fastened 

 the remaining combs to each other in similar fashion, and 

 strengthened their upper points of attachment with old wax 

 clearly to ward off from these a similar misfortune. " I 

 admit," says the generally instinct-believing Huber in 

 relating this, " that I was unable to avoid a feeling of 

 astonishment in presence of a fact from which the purest 

 reason seemed to shine out." 



A similar and even yet more striking observation is pub- 

 lished by Dr. Brown in his work on bees (quoted by Watson, 

 " The Reasoning Power in Animals," 1867, p. 448). A 

 too heavily weighted comb had fallen down in the 

 middle of the hive, and pressed against its neighbor, at the 

 same time blocking up the passage. This accident caused 

 great excitement in the colony, and brought about the 

 following results. The bees first bound the two combs 

 together with horizontal cross-pieces, and then gnawed away 

 sufficient wax and honey to leave the passage free. The 

 fallen comb and its neighbor were then fastened to the window 

 with propolis, and the original cross-pieces taken away 

 again, as being no longer necessary ! The whole operation 

 took about ten days. Men under similar circumstances 

 could not have acted more prudently. The bee-master has 

 many opportunities of remarking similar reasonable actions 

 during the building in the interior of the hive. Dr. Dzierzon, 

 of Carlsmarkt, the very experienced keeper of bees, and 

 the discoverer of their parthenogenesis, who merits so many 

 thanks for the exhibition of the inner relations of the bee- 

 hive by the introduction of movable comb-boxes, thought 



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