PROPOLIS. 107 
If the combs are not filled with honey or brood soon after 
they are built, they are varnished with a delicate coating of 
propolis, which adds greatly to their strength; but as this 
natural varnish impairs their snowy whiteness, the bees 
ought not to be allowed access to the surplus honey-recep- 
tacles, except when about ready to store them with honey. 
(734.) : 
238. Bees make a very liberal use of propolis to fill any 
crevices about their premises; and as the natural summer- 
heat of the hive keeps it soft, the bee-moth (802) selects it 
as a place of deposit for her eggs. Hives ought, therefore, to 
be made of lumber entirely free from cracks. The corners, 
which the bees usually fill with propolis, may have a melted 
mixture run into them, consisting of three parts of resin and 
one of bees-wax; this remaining hard during the hottest 
weather, will bid defiance to the moth. 
239. Bees gather propolis, especially when they can find 
neither honey nor pollen in the fields. Thus, during the 
honey-crop, very little of it is taken. In some countries, 
they use it much more plentifully, owing to its being found 
more readily. 
240. Propolis is hard and brittle in the Winter, and its 
use by the bees to glue up all parts of the hive, has created 
the greatest objection to drawers, close-fitting frames, 
hinged doors, etc., with which some patent hives are pro- 
vided, and which become entirely immovable, when once 
eoated with it. It is, at all times, the greatest hindrance 
to the neat handling of the combs, and in warm weather 
daubs the hands of the Apiarist. It can only be cleaned 
from the fingers by the use, in place of soap, of a few drops 
of turpentine, alcohol, spirits of hartshorn, or ether. 
241. Propolis is sometimes put to a very curious use by 
the bees. 
“A snail, having crept into one of M. Réaumur’s hives early 
in the morning, after crawling about for some time, adhered, by 
