BEE MANUAL. 89 



of secreting the wax and building the comb ? This appears to 

 be Professor Cook's view ; he says, 



" That nitrogenous food is necessary, as claimed by Langstroth and 

 Neighbours, is not true. Yet, in the active season, when muscular 

 exertion is great, nitrogenous food must be imperatively necessary to 

 supply the waste and give tone to the body. Secretion of wax 

 demands a healthy condition of the bee, and so indirectly requires 

 some nitrogenous food." 



At all events, it is now well known that the wax is exuded 

 from the body of the worker bee, and formed in thin flakes in 

 what are termed the wax pockets, of which four may be 

 observed in the foregoing engraving, on each side of the centre 

 line on the under part of the abdomen, and which are, in fact, 

 the folds of the shell-like plates covering the abdominal rings. 

 The wax can only be secreted when the temperature of the 

 hive is above a certain point, and during the time of secretion 

 the bees appear to hang in clusters or festoons, in a state of 

 absolute repose. In the height of the honey season, or so long 

 as new comb is required, this secretion goes on night and day. 

 The constituents of wax, according to the analysis of Hess, 

 are — 



Oxygen ... ... ... 7.50 



Carbon ... ... ... ... 79.30 



Hydrogen ... ... ... 13.20 



100-00 



Langstroth says that " careful experiments prove that from 

 thirteen to twenty pounds of honey are required to make a 

 single pound of wax." This has been until lately accepted as 

 a well-ascertained fact ; but within the last few years some 

 American apiarists have begun to doubt if quite so much honey 

 was consumed, and lately it has been stated, on the strength of 

 some isolated experiments, that the bees do not consume more 

 than eight pounds of honey in order to secrete one pound of 

 wax. Many more careful experiments will be requisite before 

 this can be satisfactorily proved or disproved. In the meantime 

 it may be asserted that something between eight and twenty 

 pounds are required, and we cannot be far astray if we assume 

 the mean of these figures, or fourteen pounds, to be correct for 

 any purposes of calculation. 



