PRODUCTION OF WAX 197 
Color.—There is a great variation in the color of wax, depend- 
ing upon the source of the food supply of the bees at the time 
of comb building. As a rule newly built comb is light in color, 
gradually growing darker with use. The brood combs shortly 
become quite dark, and in time almost black, due to the stains of 
constant travel as well as refuse from the growing larve and 
the cocoons which are left behind when they emerge from the 
cells. When cla combs are melted, so many of these cocoons 
often remain that they will retain the exact shape of the original 
cell. 
Size and Shape——tThe difference in size and shape between 
the cells prepared for various purposes, as for the rearing of 
queens, is so striking as to attract instant attention on looking 
within the hive. Much has been written in admiration of the 
mathematical precision with which the bees are able to occupy 
all the available space by building a six-sided cell, the bottom 
of each of which was opposite the bottom of one-third of each 
of three others. By building in this way the maximum of both 
capacity and strength is secured with no lost space. 
If the bees build according to their own plans the combs are 
usually about an inch in thickness with cells of equal depth on 
each side. If built within frames in a hive they may be thicker 
or thinner, depending upon the spacing of the combs. Extracted 
honey producers often space their frames so as to secure thicker 
combs to make the work of uncapping easy. The distance be- 
tween the combs is from three-eighths of an inch to seven- 
sixteenths of an inch, depending upon circumstances. The bees 
require about three-eighths of an inch at least in order to move 
about easily. Combs are usually placed about an inch and a 
half from center to center. 
The worker cells are the smallest and we resort to the use of 
foundation to insure that the cells will mostly be built of this 
size, as mentioned elsewhere. According to most writers each 
worker cell is about one-fifth of an inch in diameter, and the 
drone cells are somewhat larger. The queen cells are built espe- 
