COMB. 83 



unusual quantities of honey, as they have plenty of room for 

 its storage. Thus it often happens, that by their wise 

 economy of time, they actually lose nothing, even if confined, 

 for several days, to their hive. 



" How doth the little busy bee, improve each shining hour !" 



The poet might with equal truth have described her, as 

 improving the gloomy days, and the dark nights, in her 

 useful labors. 



It is an interesting fact, which I do not remember ever to 

 have seen noticed, that honey-gathering, and comb-building, 

 go on simultaneously ; so that when one stops, the other 

 ceases also. I have repeatedly observed, that as soon as the 

 honey harvest fails, the bees intermit their labors in building 

 new comb, even although large portions of their hive are 

 unfilled. If they should use their stores to enlarge their 

 combs, they would incur the risk of perishing in the Winter, 

 by starvation. When honey no longer abounds in the fields, 

 it is wisely ordered, that they should not consume their 

 hoarded treasures, in expectation of supplies which may 

 never come. Could any safer rule have been given them .' 

 And were honey-gathering our business, should not we,with all 

 our boasted reason, be obliged to adopt the very same course .' 



Wax being a bad conductor, when warmed by the animal 

 heat of the bees can more easily be worked, than if it 

 parted with its heat too readily. By this properly, the combs 

 serve also to keep the bees warm, and there is not so much 

 risk of the honey candying in the cells, or the combs crack- 

 ing with frost. If wax was a good conductor of heat, the 

 combs would often be icy cold, moisture would condense 

 and freeze upon them, and they would fail to answer all the 

 ends for which they are intended. 



The size of the cells, in which workers are reared, never 



