§vi.] PROPOLIS. 3°' 



as bees must have this glue before they can begin to 

 build their combs, they will resort to most unlikely places 

 to obtain it. Sometimes they will enter a paint-shop and 

 attack the varnish, and it is said they have been seen to 

 obtain propolis from the pitch and rigging of a ship. 

 These circumstances afford intelligible hints to the 

 apiarian, who, if his bees have not easy access to firs, 

 poplars,^ or willows, will provide some glutinous or 

 resinous matter which may serve for a substitute. The 

 extraction of propolis costs the bees very considerable 

 labour, which they should be relieved of as much as 

 possible in order to facilitate their great work of honey- 

 gathering. Bees choose the warmer part of the day 

 during which to gather propolis, as then it does not so 

 rapidly stiffen. Frequently when they arrive at the hive 

 it has become so hard that the other bees are scarcely 

 able to gnaw it from their thighs. 



With propolis bees fasten down their hives, stop up 

 crevices, to exclude moths and ants, and sometimes use 

 it to narrow their doorways against the invasion of wasps. 

 Extraordinary anecdotes are told of the prompt and 

 ingenious use they make of this substance. Reaumur 

 relates that, a snail having been observed by the bees on 

 the window of the hive, they proceeded to glue the shell 

 to the glass, and there sealed down the intruder in hope- 

 less durance. In another case, that of a slug, the bees, 

 having slain it with their stings, were quite unable to re- 

 move it from the hive. With wonderful foresight they 



