106 



MANUAL OF THE APIART. 



is SO rapid that the hive becomes so filled that the queen is 

 unable to lay her full quota of eggs ; in fact, I have seen the 

 brood very much reduced in this way, which, of course, greatly 

 depleted the colony. This might be called ruinous prosperity. 

 The natural use of the honey is to furnish the mature bees 

 with food, and when mixed with pollen, to form the diet of 

 the young bees. 



V.'AX. 



The product of the bees, second in importance, is wax. 

 This is a solid, unctious substance, and is, as shown by its 

 chemical composition, a fat-like material, though not as some 

 authors assert, the fat of bees. As already observed, this is 

 a secretion formed in pellets, the shape of an irregular pentagon 



Fig. 27. 



Under-side Abdmnen, magnified. 



«, (*, etc.— Wax pellets. 



Wax-Scales in situ, magnified. 



w— Wax-scale. 



(Pig. 27, w), underneath the abdomen. These pellets are light- 

 colored, very thin and fragile, and are secreted by and molded 

 upon the membrane towards the body from the wax-pockets. 

 Neighbour speaks of the wax oozing through pores from the 

 stomach. This is not the case, but, as with the synovial fluid 

 about our own joints, is formed by the secreting membrane, 

 and does not pass through holes, as water through a sieve. 

 There are four of these wax-pockets on each side, and thus 

 there may be eight wax-scales on a bee at one time. This 

 wax can be secreted by the bees, when fed on pure sugar, as 

 shown by Huber, which experiment I have verified. I 

 removed all honey and comb from my observing-hive, left the 

 bees for twenty-four hours to digest all food which might be 



