CONCERNING HONEY III 
prepared. The bees, during their ordinary work- 
aday life, subsist on the nectar and pollen which 
they are continually bringing into the hive. Much 
pollen is laid by in the cells in its raw condition, 
but pollen is almost exclusively a tissue-former, and 
it is not used by the worker-bees during the winter 
for their own sustenance, but preserved until early 
spring, when it forms the principal component in 
the bee-milk on which the larve are mainly fed. 
The nectar, however, is necessary at all times to 
support life in the mature bees, and it must therefore 
be stored for use during the long months when 
there are no flowers to secrete it. 
It is here that we get a glimpse into the ways of 
the honey-bee that may well give spur to the most 
wonder-satiated amongst us. If a sample of fresh 
nectar is examined, it will be found to consist of 
about seventy per cent of water, the small remainder 
of its bulk being made up of what is chemically 
known as cane sugar, together with a trace of cer- 
tain essential oils and aromatic principles. It is 
practically nothing but sweetened and flavoured 
water. But ripe honey shows a very different 
composition. The oils and essences are there, with 
some added acids; but of water there is no more 
than seven to ten per cent; practically the entire bulk 
of good honey consists of sugar, but it is grape 
sugar, with scarce a trace of the cane sugar which 
nectar exclusively contains. To put the thing in 
plainest words—the economic honey-bee, finding 
herself with three or four months to get through 
at the least possible cost in energy and nutriment, 
has scientifically reasoned out the matter, and, among 
other ingenious provisions, has arranged to subject 
