82 THE EBB keeper's MANUAL. 



It is an interesting fact, which I do not remember ever to 

 have seen particularly noticed by any writer, that honey 

 gathering, and comb building, go on simultaneously; so 

 that when one stops, the other ceases also. I have repeat- 

 edly observed, that as soon as the honey harvest fails, the 

 bees intermit their labors in building new comb, even when 

 large portions of their hive are unfilled. They might en- 

 large their combs by using some of their stores ; but then 

 they would incur the risk of perishing in the winter, by 

 starvation. When honey no longer abounds in the fields, 

 it is wisely ordered, that they should not consume their hoard- 

 ed treasures, in expectation of further supplies, which may 

 never come. I do not believe, that any other safe rule 

 could have been given them ; and if honey gathering was 

 our business, with all our boasted reason, we should be 

 obliged to adopt the very same course. 



Wax is one of the best non-conductors of heat, so that 

 when it is warmed by the animal heat of the bees, it can more 

 easily be worked, than if it parted with its heat too readily. 

 By this property, the combs sei-ve also to keep the bees 

 warm, and there is not so much risk of the honey candy- 

 ing in the cells, or the combs cracking with frost. If wax 

 was a good conductor of heat, the combs would often be icy 

 cold, moisture would condense and freeze upon them, and they 

 would fail to answer the ends for which they are intended. 



The size of the cells, in which workers are reared, never 

 varies : the same may substantially be said of the drone 

 cells which are very considerably larger ; the cells in which 

 honey is stored, often vary exceedingly in depth, while in 

 diameter, they are of all sizes from that of the worker cells 

 to that of the drones. 



The cells of the bees are found perfectly to answer all 

 the most refined conditions of a very intricate mathematical 



