102 Secretion of Wax. 



by Huber, whose experiment I have verified. I removed all 

 honey and comb from my observing-hive, left the bees for 

 twenty-four hours to digest all food which might be in their 

 stomachs, and then fed pure sugar, which was better than 

 honey, as "Prof. R. F. Kedzie has shown by analysis that not 

 only filtered honey, but even the nectar which he collected 

 right from the flowers themselves, contains nitrogen. The 

 bees commenced at once to build comb, and continued for 

 several days, so long as I kept them confined. This is as we 

 should suppose ; sugar contains hydrogen and oxygen in pit)- 

 portion to form water, while the third element, carbon, is in 

 the same or about the same proportion as the oxygen. Now, 

 the fats usually contain little oxygen and a good deal of car- 

 bon and hydrogen. Thus the sugar by losing some of its 

 oxygen would contain the requisite elements for fat. It was 

 found true in the days of slavery in the South that the negroes 

 of Louisiana, during the gathering of the cane, would become 

 very fat. They ate much sugar ; they gained much fat. Now, 

 wax is a fat-like substance, not that it is the animal fat of bees, 

 as often asserted — in fact it contains much less hydrogen, as 

 will be seen by the following formula from Hess : 



Oxygen 7.50 



Carbon -. 79.30 



Hydrogen 13.20 



— but it is a special secretion for a special purpose, and from 

 its composition we should conclude that it might be secreted 

 from a purely saccharine diet, and experiment confirms the con- 

 clusion. It has been found that bees require about twenty 

 pounds of honey to secrete one of wax. The experiments of 

 Mr. P. L. Viallon show this estimate of Huber to be too 

 great. -My own experiments would sustain Huber's statement. 

 In these experiments the bees are confined, and so the conclu- 

 sions are to be received with caution. We cannot know how 

 much the results a;;e changed by the abnormal condition in 

 which the bees are placed. 



That nitrogenous food is necessary, as claimed by Langstroth 

 and Neighbour, is not true. Yet, in the active season, when 

 muscular exertion is great, nitrogenous food must be impera- 

 tively necessary to supply the waste and give tone to the 

 body. Secretion of wax demands a healthy condition of tSe 

 bee, and so indirectly requires some nitrogenous food. 



