Products of Bees, 99 



CHAPTER IV. 



PEODUCTS OF BEES ; THEIR ORIGIN AND 

 FUNCTION. 



Among all insects, bees stand first in the variety of the 

 useful products which they give us, and, next to the silk- 

 moths, in the importance of these products. They seem the 

 more remarkable and important, in that so few insects yield 

 articles of commercial value. True, the cochineal insect, a 

 species of bark-louse, gives us an important coloring material ; 

 the lac insect, of the same family, gives us the important 

 element of our best glue — shellac ; the blister-beetles afford an 

 article prized by the physician, while we are indebted to one 

 of the gall-flies for a valuable element of ink : but the honey- 

 bee afiords not only a delicious article of food, but also another 

 article of no mean commercial rank, namely, wax. We will 

 proceed to examine the various products which come from bees. 



HONEY. 



Of course the first product of bees, not only to attract atten- 

 tion but also in importance, is honey. And what is honey ? 

 We can only say that it is a sweet substance gathered from 

 flowers and other sources, by the bees. We cannot, therefore, 

 give its chemical composition which would be as varied as the 

 sources from which it comes. We cannot even call it a sugar, 

 for it may be, and always is, composed of various sugars, and 

 thus it is easy to understand why honey varies so much in 

 richness, color, flavor, and effects on digestion. 



Nectar of flowers and honey are quite different. The 

 former contains more water, is neutral instead of acid, and the 

 sugars taken from the flowers are much modified while in the 

 alimentary canal of the bee in transit from flower to comb. 

 Nectar consists of sucrose or cane sugar from twelve to fifteen 

 per cent.,, and mellose, or uncrystallizable sugar ten per cent. 

 The remainder is mostly water, though there is always a small 

 amount of nitrogenous material. 



In honey the cane sugar is largely changed to a substance 

 chemically like glucose : the mellose seems also somewhat modi- 

 fied. There is a little mannite, probably the result of chemi- 



