202 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



white fabric of brood and honey-comb is built up 

 with extraordinary rapidity. 



How the coarse, spongy comb, which swarms 

 will sometimes manufacture, is produced cannot 

 be definitely stated. It has all the appearance of 

 having been made from raw wax, hurriedly masti- 

 cated and kneaded up with honey, and probably 

 this is its actual composition. The secretion from 

 the salivary gland, is necessarily slow, and with time 

 pressing and a horde of impatient foragers dinning 

 about her ears, eager to unload and be off again to 

 the clover, the ingenious mason-bee appears to have 

 hit on the idea of using the contents of her honey- 

 sac as a substitute. Nothing, however, but a 

 mechanical admixture can take place between 

 honey and the raw wax. This dissolves only 

 under the influence of the bee's saliva, which has 

 intensely acid properties. 



To understand all that the bees have accom- 

 plished when a new empty hive has been filled 

 throughout with waxen comb, it is necessary to 

 follow the operations of the swarm pretty closely 

 during the first few weeks of its separate life. It 

 is a big undertaking, the building of an entire, new 

 bee-city, and the problems that confront the builders 

 are many and complicated. In the first place, 

 whether she ever attains it or not, the worker-bee 

 will aim at nothing short of perfection. Hereditary 

 experience tells her exactly what are the home- 

 requirements of the colony, and she now sets 



