THE BUILDING OF THE CITY 35 



all the members of the colony, and thus proceeding 

 at a great rate. 



As soon as the wax, which has been accumulating 

 in the wax pockets on the underside of the bee's 

 body, is ready, which is only after the bees have 

 been in the hive long enough to raise the tempera- 

 ture to at least 80 degrees, the first bee leaves 

 the cluster, and, after kneading the wax well 

 with saliva, she sticks it to the roof, adding layer 

 after layer till all her wax has gone. Others come 

 in succession and add wax, until a block of some 

 size is formed. Bees then scoop out circular 

 hollows in this block, piling the wax removed 

 from the hollow, round the edges. 



Much discussion has raged about this subject, 

 some maintaining that the insects build hexagon- 

 ally, others asserting that the hexagonal form 

 only comes after a number of cells are built and 

 is indeed an inevitable result of the bees' method 

 of working. My observations incline me to 

 support the latter view. One experiment I made, 

 and which I am enabled to reproduce in the form 

 of a photograph, shows clearly that the beginning 

 of the cells is a circular hollow. I gave a 

 small swarm of bees a block of very rough, uneven 

 wax, in the form of a sheet about six inches deep 

 and eight wide, the thickness varying from one- 

 eighth to nearly a half-inch. In this wax holes 

 were scooped at irregular intervals and the wax 

 piled up as before described. It was not until 



