142 The Honey-Makers 



pound of it can store over thirty pounds of honey and it 

 has been estimated that one pound of wax is moulded 

 into from thirty-five to fifty thousand cells of worker comb. 



The scales of wax as formed on the abdomen are very 

 thin, brittle, and fragile, quite unfit for building purposes. 



But after tliey have been thoroughly masticated and 

 mixed with the saliva of the bee they become plastic and 

 fit for use. 



Bees give out much extra heat during the season of wax 

 secretion, owing doubtless to the increased vital activity, 

 and this high temperature is useful in keeping the wax 

 plastic, as cold wax is more brittle and less easily moulded. 



The bee first lays down the wax in a mass, as it were, 

 and then with jaws and proboscis proceeds to hollow out 

 and build up the cells ; scraping and moulding, drawing 

 out the edges of the little six-sided cups that grow under 

 her labors, pressing out the waxen sides so thin that they 

 become transparent and the wonder grows that they are 

 not broken in the operation. 



The natural form of a transverse section of the comb 

 cell seems to be circular instead of hexagonal, as is shown 

 by comparison with the cells of bumble-bees, and other 

 species that have not acquired the skill of the hive-bee, 

 and as is also shown by the cells about the edge of the 

 hive-bee's comb, which are rounded when not in contact 

 with anything. These rounded cells on the edges can be 

 seen in the little square boxes of honey so commonly 

 sold. 



When hive-bees work, the cells they build are so placed 

 as to interfere with those on all sides of them and thus are 

 modified from the circular to the hexagonal form, the form 

 that allows the greatest number of cells in a given space, 

 with the least expenditure of wax. 



They stand a certain distance apart according to the 



