Secretion of Wax. 101 



queen never lays her maximum number of eggs except when 

 storing is going on. In fact, in the interims of honey-gather- 

 ing, egg-laying not infrequently ceases altogether. The queen 

 seems discreet, gauging the size of her family by the probable 

 means of support. 



Again, in times of extraordinary yields of honey the storing 

 is very rapid and the hive becomes so filled that the queen is 

 unable to lay her full quota of eggs ; in fact, I have seen the 

 brood very much reduced in this way, which, of course, greatly 

 depletes the colony. This might be called ruinous prosperity. 



The natural use of the honey is to furnish the mature bees 

 with food and, when mixed with pollen, to form the diet of the 

 young bees. 



WAX. 



The product of the bees second in importance, is wax. 

 This is a solid, unctious substance, and is, as shown by its 

 chemical composition, a fat-Uke material,. though not, as some 

 authors assert, the fat of bees. As already observed, this is 

 a secretion formed in scales, the shape of an irregular pentagon 



Fig. 30. 



Wax Scales in situ, magnified. 

 tti— Wax-scale. 



(Fig. 30, w), underneath the abdomen. These scales are light- 

 colored, very thin and fragile, and are secreted by and molded 

 upon the membrane towards the body from the wax-pockets. 

 Neighbour speaks of the wax oozing through pores from the 

 stomach. This is not the case, but, like the synovial fluid 

 about our own joints, it is formed by the secreting membrane, 

 and does not pass through holes, as water through a sieve. 

 There are four of these wax-pockets on each side, and thus 

 tKere may be eight wax-scales on a bee at one time. This wax 

 can be secreted by the bees when- fed on pure sugar, as shown 



