Honey-Comb. 115 
cell nearly full, she begins to put a cover 
over it. She begins at the bottom of the 
cell to put on this “cap,” as it is called, 
and by the time she has finished the cap, 
the cell is as full of honey as she can get 
it, but there is a little air left in, which 
acts as a cushion, and keeps the honey 
from running against the cap. 
So there is her honey-cup, filled and 
sealed. 
Miss Apis fills her honey cell rather 
slowly, and leaves it uncapped for a few 
days until the extra water evaporates and 
the honey is “ ripened.” 
You know very well that if you have 
molasses in an open dish, it becomes thicker 
as time goes on; that is because it loses 
its water by evaporation, and that is exactly 
what happens when honey is left uncapped 
for a while. It gets thicker and keeps 
better. 
Miss Apis does not fill a of her fine 
little wax preserve jars with honey. If 
