30 A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. 



succession add their efforts to hers, each appearing to 

 act individually in a direction impressed either by the 

 Workers who have preceded it, or by the condition in 

 which it finds the work. The whole population of Wax 

 Makers is in a state of the most complete inaction, till 

 one Bee goes forth to lay the foundations of the first 

 comb. Immediately others second her intentions, adding 

 to the height and length of the mass; and when they 

 cease to act, a Bee, if the term may be used, of another 

 profession, one of the Nurse Bees, goes to form the draft 

 of the first cell, in which she is succeeded by others." 



In the form of construction of the cells an abstruse 

 mathematical problem is involved, \yhich long taxed the 

 powers of our ablest mathematicians to solve, and yet 

 this problem the Bee, inspired by a Teacher who never 

 errs, solves every time a comb is built. The combs of a 

 Bee-hive are formed in parallel vertical strata, each of 

 which, when of worker construction, is about an inch in 

 thickness (drone comb is somewhat thicker), the distance 

 between the surfaces of adjoining strata being about half 

 an inch, a space which allows for the passage of the bees 

 over both surfaces. The combs generally extend the 

 whole breadth of the hive, from front to rear, and nearly 

 the whole length from top to bottom ; they consist of 

 thin partitions which enclose hexagonal cells opening on 

 both surfaces of the comb, and closed by a partition 

 which is common to those on both sides, and occupies 

 the middle distance between the two surfaces. This 

 partition is not, however, a plane, but is composed 

 of a collection; of rhombs ; three and sometimes four of 

 these rhombs incline to one another at a certain angle 

 from the bottom of each cell, which thus has the shape 

 of a flattened pyramid, of which the base is toward the 

 mouth of the cell ; the axis of each cell coincides not with 



