COMB. 105 



the time prevented from ranging the fields to supply them- 

 selves -with pollen. By subsequent experunents, he proved that 

 sugar-syrup answered the same end with honey. Giving an im- 

 prisoned swarm an abundance of fruit and pollen, he found 

 that they subsisted on the fruit, but refused to touch the 

 pollen; and that no combs were constructed, nor any wax- 

 scales formed in their pouches. 



Notwithstanding Huber's extreme caution and unwearied 

 patience in conducting these experiments, he did not dis- 

 cover the whole truth on this important subject. Though he 

 demonstrated that bees can construct comb when fed honey 

 or sugar, without pollen, and that they cannot make it if fed 

 pollen without honey or sugar, he did not prove that when 

 permanently deprived of it they can continue to work in wax, 

 or if they can, that the pollen does not aid in its elaboration. 



Some pollen is always found in the stomach of wax-pro- 

 ducing workers, and they never build comb so rapidly as when 

 they have free access to this article. It must, therefore, in 

 some way, assist the bee in producing it. 



321. The experiments made by Berlepsch show that bees, 

 which are deprived of pollen when they construct combs, con- 

 sume from sixteen to nineteen pomids of honey to produce a 

 pound of comb, while, if provided with it, the amount of honey 

 is reduced to ten or twelve pounds. If the experiment is con- 

 tinued without pollen for some time, the bees become exhausted 

 and begin to perish. It is therefore demonstrated that although 

 nitrogen, which is one of the elements of pollen, does not 

 enter into the composition of beeswax, j^et it is indispensable 

 as food to sustain the strength of bees during their work in 

 comb making. 



233. Honey and sugar contain by weight about eight 

 pounds of oxygen to one of carbon and hydrogen. When 

 converted into wax, these proportions are remarkably changed, 

 the wax containing only one pound of oxygen to more than 

 sixteen of hydrogen and carbon. Now as oxygen is the grand 

 supporter of animal heat, the large quantity consumed in 

 secreting wax aids in generating that extraordinary heat which 

 always accompanies comb-building, and which enables the bees 



