MANIPULATION OF WAX SCALES OF THE HONEY BEE. 



-ivorkers at close range, and it also obviates the necessity of placing 

 glass ends in the hive against which comb might be built. 



Even with the best of arrangements it is difficult to follow some of 

 the movements of the workers during the act of scale removal. As 

 an aid to vision a Zeiss binocular microscope is used, the tubes being 

 removed from the stand and held to the eye after the manner of a 

 iield glass. By the use of this instrument a bee appears to acquire 



Pig. 2. — Observatory hive. The sides are fitted with sliding glass doors, and two pieces of 

 glass cover the top. The sliding glass doors allow the observer to gain access to any 



. small area of the outer comb without removing the glass from the entire side of the 

 hive. Screens of wood cover the glass of the sides and top when the bees are not under 

 observation. (Original.) 



the dimensions of a large-sized rat, and the action of its legs and 

 mandibles may be followed with great precision. 



For tke sake of later identification many of the bees ace marketl 

 by painting different colors on their baclts, and some are numbered. 

 Such distinctive marks make it possible to follow the actions of an 

 individual bee from day to day. 



The observations here recorded were made during the summer of 

 1911 at the apiary of the Bureau of Entomology. 



