38 THE BUILDING OF THE CITY 



tion, for when the block of wax is first put down, 

 there is nothing to guide the bees as to the distance 

 at which to put the block for the second comb. 

 They must allow for the lengths of the cells, in 

 which one can only suppose memory assists them. 



Here, again, there is not absolute perfection, for 

 naturally built combs are frequently very irregular, 

 and if they have been in a hive the whole of a 

 good season, they will be found to vary in thick- 

 ness. This is because, having been built crookedly 

 at the start, some cells have had to be made much 

 deeper in order to fill up the space. When honey 

 is coming in too fast for fresh cells to be built to 

 receive it, the cells along the top are frequently 

 built out till only one bee can pass between the 

 two combs. The depth of the cells of both 

 drones and workers is a trifle under half an inch, 

 but in the case of drone cells, the cappings which 

 are put on after the grub has grown to its full 

 size are very convex, so as to allow room for the 

 extra length of the creature. Although this is 

 the normal depth of a cell, when honey comes in 

 plentifully, cells are lengthened wherever possible, 

 and I have seen them only a little short of two 

 inches deep. 



One of bees' characteristics, that, in fact, 

 upon which the whole science of modern apicul- 

 ture depends, is that they will always enlarge 

 existing work rather than undertake entirely new. 

 Thus, if, instead of being allowed to build combs 



