PROPOLIS. 87 



that the bee moth will find a place in which she can insert 

 her ovi-positor and lay her eggs. The corners of the hive, 

 which the bees always fill with propolis, should have a 

 melted mixture of three parts rosin, and one part bees-wax 

 run into them, which remains hard during the hottest weath- 

 er, and bids defiance to the moth. The inside of the hive may 

 be coated with the same mixture, put on hot with a brush. 



The bees find it difiicult to gather the propolis, and 

 equally so to remove from their thighs, and to work so 

 sticky a material. For this reason, it is doubly important to 

 save them all unnecessary labor in amassing it. To men, 

 time is money ; to bees, it is honey ; and all the arrange- 

 ments of the hive should be such as to economize it to the 

 very utmost. 



Propolis is sometimes put to a very curious use by the 

 bees. " A snail* having crept into one of M. Reaumur's 

 hives early in the morning, after crawling about for some 

 time, adhered by means of its own slime to one of the 

 glass panes. The bees having discovered the snail, sur- 

 rounded it and formed a border of propolis round the verge 

 of its shell, and fastened it so securely to the glass that 

 it became immovable." 



"Forever closed the impenetrable door, 

 It naught avails that in his torpid veins 

 Year after year, life's loitering spark remains."! 



Evans. 

 " Maraldi, another eminent Apiarian, has related a some- 

 what similar instance. He states that a snail without a shell, 

 or slug, as it is called, had entered one of his hives ; and 

 that the bees, as soon as they observed it, stung it to death : 

 * Bevan. 



t Some very extraordinary instances are related of the protraction 

 of hfe in snails. After they had lain in a cabinet above fifteen years, 

 immersing them in water caused them to revive and crawl out of 

 their shells. 



