INSIDE THE HIVE. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
After the beginner has secured his bees and has learned soniething 
about the three kinds of individuals that make up the hive family, he 
needs to know something about the inside of the hive before he begins 
working withthe bees. 
The Brood-Chamber Defined. 
The brood-chamber, which may be called the living-room of the bee 
family, is the most interesting part of the hive. It is ordinarily the lower 
part of the hive (a single hive-body) in which the bees are reared. This 
part belongs particularly to the bees themselves; and it is very rarely that 
the beekeeper takes away any of the honey which it contains. The honey 
there is for the bees’ own use. The surplus honey is stored in the “supers” 
above the brood-chamber. In the interior of this brood-chamber are the 
combs in which the brood. is reared and in which the bees store honey for 
their own use. We are now going to consider this comb, what it is made 
of and the uses to which the bees put it. 
Wax and Wax Secretion. 
Beeswax is a secretion that issues from the wax-glands in scales be- 
tween the six segments on the under side of the abdomen after the bee has 
been feeding heavily. It has been estimated that bees consume from five 
to fifteen pounds of honey in order to produce a single pound of wax. 
When secreting 
wax the bees, 
gorged with hon- 
ey, hang in 
chain-like for- 
mations for 
hours together, 
suspended from 
the top of the 
hive. When the 
wax first issues it 
is a liquid which 
soon hardens 
into pearly- 
white scales. The 
bees transfer 
: : ; this wax in their 
A view of bees hetween the combs cf an observation hive. This ‘ f 
picture is of a transverse section of four combs. mandibles ; and 
42 
