COMB. 



89 



CHAPTER n. 



THE BUILDING OP BEES. COMB. 



198. When a swarm (406) has found a suitable habi- 

 tation, some of the bees clean it of its rubbish, if neces- 

 sary, while others, at once, prepare to build the furniture, 

 which is intended as cradles for the young bees, and as a 

 store-room for the provisions, and is called comb. 



According to Webster, this word is probably taken from 

 the Anglo-Saxon "comb," which means a hollow; the 

 combs being hoUow structures, with exceedingly light 

 walls. 



199. The combs are usually begun at the highest point 

 of the hive and built downwards, yet, when some breaking 

 happens, the bees sometimes build them upwards ; but 

 they are far from having the usual regularity. Combs are 

 made of wax, a natural secretion which is produced by bees 

 as cattle produce fat, by eating. 



200 . " Wax is not chemically a fat or glyceride, yet it is nearly 



allied to the fats In atomic 

 constitution, and the physi- 

 ological conditions favouring 

 the formation of one are cu- 

 riously similar to those aiding 

 in the production of the other. 

 We put our poultry up to fat 

 in confinement, with partial 

 light, to secure bodily inac- 

 tivity, we Iceep warm and 



feed highly. Our bees, under Nature's teaching, put themselves 

 np to yield wax under conditions so parallel, that the suitability 

 ■of the fatting coops is vindicated."— (Cheshire.) 



rig. ;u. 



WAX SCALES. 

 (Magnified.) 



