en 59 
till the bees have gathered it, and convereted it, first into 
honey, and then into wax, in their own way. 2h fe 
The wax produced by these insects, is originally white, 
and notwithstanding we take it from the hives more or less ~ 
yellow, and sometimes as black as soot, when very old—it 
may, by art, be restored to its original colour. But it is 
evident that there is some which will become whiter than 
others. Those furnished by the departments of Bretagne, 
and particularly those of Rennes, pass for the best in Eu- 
rope. 
_ Every experienced person knows, that honey combs are 
lighter the first year of their construction, than they are 
the second. That is to say, the wax produced by a box 
_ full of combs, in its first year, has never the same weight 
___as the wax which is taken from a box, of the same volume, 
_at_two years old. The reason is plain. The bees each 
“year cover their combs with new pellicles of wax, when 
_they have no more room to build new combs; so that the 
weight of the wax augments every year. 
Bees empty the cells of honey, which they consume in 
winter, and as they render nothing but wax, (the residuum 
of the honey thus consumed,) this wax is employed to repair 
and fortify the combs and cells. In winter, the bees always 
prose wax or propolis, from the honey on which they 
eed. 
“‘T have seen,’’ says M. Duchet,. “some bees, whose 
houses have been deranged, renew, repair, or solder, by 
ligatures of new wax, that which had been detached—and 
this in autumn, winter, and spring, without going out. It 
is a fact,’’ continues the same author, “which I have seen 
_ many times.”’ 
I have witnessed the same occurrences as stated by M. 
Duchet. 
Swammerdam says, thai bees have been observed to carry 
into their hives, genuine wax. They pillaged it from 
other hives, cut it into small morsels with their teeth, and 
applied it to the pellets on their-postertor thighs. ‘This may 
be, but Réaumur says, he never observed that particularity ; 
and M. Chambon opposes the fact, in his learned notes at 
the end of Madam Chambon’s manual. 
I dare not permit myself to decide between these two 
learned and celebrated amateurs. I have never seen bees 
carry away wax from any hive; but here is a positive fact, 
respecting a broken comb, which took place in my own 
