202 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
white fabric of brood and honey-comb is built up 
with extraordinary rapidity. 
How the coarse, spongy comb, which swarms 
will sometimes manufacture, is produced cannot 
be definitely stated. It has all the appearance of 
having been made from raw wax, hurriedly masti- 
cated and kneaded up with honey, and probably 
this is its actual composition. The secretion from 
the salivary gland, is necessarily slow, and with time 
pressing and a horde of impatient foragers dinning 
about her ears, eager to unload and be off again to 
the clover, the ingenious mason-bee appears to have 
hit on the idea of using the contents of her honey- 
sac as a substitute. Nothing, however, but a 
mechanical admixture can take place between 
honey and the raw wax. This dissolves only 
under the influence of the bee’s saliva, which has 
intensely acid properties. 
To understand all that the bees have accom- 
plished when a new empty hive has been filled 
throughout with waxen comb, it is necessary to 
follow the operations of the swarm pretty closely 
during the first few weeks of its separate life. It 
is a big undertaking, the building of an entire, new 
bee-city,and the problems that confront the builders 
are many and complicated. In the first place, 
whether she ever attains it or not, the worker-bee 
will aim at nothing short of perfection. Hereditary 
experience tells her exactly what are the home- 
requirements of the colony, and she now sets 
