ORGANS AND PRODUCTS OF BEES. 23 
between the fifth and sixth abdominal segments a small canal, to which 
he attributed an excretory function, and Zoubareff, having noticed bees 
ejecting a watery substance while returning from the fields, suggested 
that this gland probably served to separate a portion of the water from 
the nectar, the liquid deposited in the cells appearing to contain less of it 
than that just secreted by the flowers. However this maybe, evapora- 
tion takes place rapidly in the heat of the hive after the nectar or thin 
honey has been stored, as it is temporarily, in open cells. Besides being 
thin, the nectar has at first a raw, rank taste, generally the flavor and odor 
peculiar to the plant from which gathered, and these are frequently far 
from agreeable. To make from this raw product the healthful and deli- 
cious table luxury which honey constitutes — "fit food for the gods 71 — 
is another of the functions peculiar to the worker bee. The first step is 
the stationing of workers in lines near the hive entrances. These, 
by incessant buzzing of their wings, drive currents of air into and 
out of the hive and over the comb surfaces. If the hand be held be- 
fore the entrance at such a time a strong current of warm air may 
be felt coming out. The loud buzzing heard at night during the 
summer time is due to the wings of workers engaged chiefly in ripen- 
ing nectar. Instead of being at rest, as many suppose, the busy workers 
are caring for the last lot of gathered nectar and making room for 
further accessions. This may go on far into the night, or even all night, 
to a greater or less extent, the loudness and activity being proportion- 
ate to the amount and thinness of the liquid. Frequently the ripening 
honey is removed from one set of cells and placed in others. This may 
be to gain the use of certain combs for the queen, or possibly it is merely 
incidental to the manipulation the bees wish to give it. When, finallj , 
the process has been completed, it is found that the water content has 
usually been reduced to 10 or 12 per cent, and that the disagreeable 
odors and flavors, probably due to volatile oils, have also been driven 
off in a great measure, if not wholly, by the heat of the hive, largely 
generated by the bees. During the manipulation an antiseptic — formic 
acid — secreted by glands in the head of the bee, and it is also possible 
other glandular secretions, have been added. The finished product is 
stored in waxen cells above and around the brood nest and the main 
cluster of bees, as far from the entrance as it can be and still be near 
to the brood and bees. The work of sealing with waxen caps then goes 
forward rapidly, the covering being more or less porous. 
Each kind of honey has its distinctive flavor and aroma, derived, as 
already indicated, mainly from the particular blossoms by which it was 
secreted, but modified and softened by the manipulation given it in the 
hives. When the secretion is abundant in a flower having a short or 
open corolla, hence one from which the bees find it easy to obtain the 
honey, they will confine their visits to that kind if the latter is present 
in sufficient numbers. Thus it is that linden, white clover, buckwheat. 
