40 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
varied colours lie over one another in strata, as at 
/, B. Upon these honey is often placed, after which 
the whole is, for future use, sealed down in the general 
line of the comb face {sp). Although the thick- 
ness of comb devoted to brood and pollen is constant, 
that used for storing honey is liable to great fluctua- 
tion, the cells being elongated until sometimes a thick- 
ness of 3in., or even 4in., will be reached, as the bees 
endeavour to fill up vacancies in accordance with their 
own ideas of economising space, as may be seen at 
if, B, Fig. 7. 
Fig. 7.— Straw Skep in Section, showing Arrangement of Combs 
(Scale, jV). 
A, Vertical Section— /6, Floor Board ; e, Entrance ; hr. Brood ; p, Pollen ; 
h. Honey ; //j. Feeding Hole ; hs, bs, Bee-space. B, Horizontal Section— sfr, 
Skep-Side ; c, c. Combs ; sc, sc. Store Combs ; bs, bs. Bee-space. 
Even in a shelter that presents no inequalities they 
never keep the midrib perfectly straight, the latter 
being always disposed to take a slightly sinuous course, 
as at c, c, B ; but if they encounter irregularities, the 
queerest accommodations often arise. The swarm in 
the privet bush, referred to in the last chapter, had 
combs of the most whimsical forms, for which space 
had been found by carving all the leaves from their 
petioles, while the twigs had been worked in in such 
