COMB, 89 
CHAPTER II. 
THE BUILDING OF BEES.—COMR. 
198. When a swarm (406) has found a suitable habi- 
tatton, some of the bees clean it of its rubbish, if neces- 
sary, while others, at once, prepare to build the furniture, 
which is intended as cradles for the young bees, and as a 
store-room for the provisions, and is called comb. 
According to Webster, this word is probably taken from 
the Anglo-Saxon ‘‘comb,’’ which means a hollow; the 
combs being hollow structures, with exceedingly light 
walls. e 
199. The combs are usually begun at the highest point 
of the hive and built downwards, yet, when some breaking 
happens, the bees sometimes build them upwards; but 
they are far from having the usual regularity. -Combs are 
made of wax, a natural secretion which is produced by bees 
as cattle produce fat, by eating. 
200. “ Wax is not chemically a fat or glyceride, yet it is nearly 
_. allied to the fats in atomic 
constitution, and the physi- 
ological conditions favouring 
y the formation of one are cu- 
riously similar to those aiding 
in the production of the other. 
We put our poultry up to fat 
in confinement, with partial 
light, to secure bodily inac- 
tivity, we keep warm and 
feed highly. Our bees, under Nature’s teaching, put themselves 
up to yield wax under conditions so parallel, that the suitability. 
of the fatting coops.is vindicated.’»—(Cheshire.) 
Fig. 34. 
WAX SCALES. 
(Magnified .) 
