Honey-Comb. 109 
When she has pulled out the scales, she 
moistens them in her mouth with saliva, 
for they are too brittle at first to be useful. 
When they are thoroughly moistened and 
softened, she pulls them out into white 
bands. 
Now she is all ready to make honey-cups. 
First, in company with a number of her: 
sisters, she sticks a little wax along one 
side of the hive near the top, then the 
six-sided cups or cells are begun. 
This sounds easy enough, but suppose 
you try to make a six-sided cell of moist 
bees’ wax and see how you succeed ! 
Of course you have not the best tools 
in the world for such work, for good as 
fingers may be for cutting with a scissors, 
or driving nails, or picking up pins, they 
would be poor tools for making cells of 
bees’ wax. 
Miss Apis is supplied with something 
better. You know about that. Those 
claws on her feet are admirable wax tools, 
