144 The Honey-Makers 



" The finished comb is the result of the united efforts 

 of the moving, resdess mass," says Root, " and the great 

 mystery is, that anything so wonderful can ever result at 

 all, from such a mixed-up, skipping about way of working 

 as they seem to have. . . . 



" When the cells are built out only part way, they are 

 filled with honey or eggs, and the length is increased when 

 they feel disposed, or ' get around to it,' perhaps ; as a 

 thick rim is left around the upper edge of the cell, they 

 have the material at hand, to lengthen it at any time. This 

 thick rim is also very necessary to give the bees a secure 

 foothold, for the sides of the cells are so thin, they would 

 be very apt to break down with even the light weight of a 

 bee. When honey is coming in rapidly, and the bees are 

 crowded for room to store it, their eagerness is so plainly 

 apparent, as they push the work along, that they fairly 

 seem to quiver with excitement ; but, for all that, they 

 skip about from one cell to another in the same way, no 

 one bee working in the same spot to exceed a minute or 

 two, at the very outside. Very frequently, after one has 

 bent a piece of wax a certain way, the next tips it in the 

 opposite direction, and so on until completion ; but after 

 all have given it a twist or a pull, it is found in pretty 

 nearly the right spot. 



" As near as I can discover they moisten the thin ribbons 

 of wax, with some sort of fluid or saliva. As the bee always 

 preserves the thick rib or rim of the comb he is working, 

 the looker-on would suppose he was making the walls of a 

 considerable thickness, but if we drive him away, and 

 break this rim, we will find that his mandibles have come 

 so nearly together that the wax between them, beyond the 

 rim, is almost as thin as a tissue paper." 



Thousands of bees pour in and out of the hive many 

 times a day, thousands more swarm over the combs, each, 



