PROPOLIS. 107 



If the combs are not filled with honey or brood soon after 

 they are built, thoy are varnished with a delicate coating of 

 propolis, which adds greatly to their strength ; but as this 

 natural varnish impairs their snowy whiteness, the bees 

 ought not to be allowed access to the surplus honey-recep- 

 tacles, except when about ready to store them with honey. 

 (734.) 



238. Bees make a very liberal use of propolis to fill any 

 crevices about their premises ; and as the natural summer- 

 heat of the hive keeps it soft, the bee-moth (802) selects it 

 as a place of deposit for her eggs. Hives ought, therefore, to 

 be made of lumber entirely free from cracks. The corners, 

 which the bees usually fill with propolis, may have a melted 

 mixture run into them, consisting of three parts of resin and 

 one of bees-wax ; this remaining hard during the hottest 

 weather, will bid defiance to the moth. 



239. Bees gather propolis, especially when they can find 

 neither honey nor pollen in the fields. Thus, daring the 

 honej'-crop, very little of it is taken. In some countries, 

 they use it much more plentifully, owing to its being found 

 more readily. 



240. Propolis is hard and brittle in the Winter, and its 

 use by the bees to glue up all parts of the hive, has created 

 the greatest objection to drawers, close-fitting frames, 

 hinged doors, etc., with which some patent hives are pro- 

 vided, and which become entirely immovable, when once 

 coated with it. It is, at all times, the greatest hindrance 

 to the neat handling of the combs, and in warm weather 

 daubs the hands of the Apiarist. It can only be cleaned 

 from the fingers by the use, in place of soap, of a few drops 

 of turpentine, alcohol, spirits of hartshorn, or ether. 



241 . Propolis is sometimes put to a very curious use by 

 the bees. 



"A snail, having crept into one of M. Reaumur's hives early 

 in the morning, q,fter crawling about for some time, adhered, by 



