146 Rev. Mr Dunbar on the Instinct and Operations of Bees. 
ving a due proportion between the quantity of the food, and 
the extent of the brood-cells^ 
5. When a bee arrives loaded with farina, which is now 
known to constitute the principal ingredient in the food of the 
young bees while in the maggot state, she searches for a cell in 
which she may deposit her burden ; and j , having found one, she 
fixes her two middle and two hind legs on the edge of it, and, 
curving her body, seizes the farina with her fore legs, and 
makes it drop into the cell; after which she instantly hurries 
away to renew the labours, while another bee inserts her head 
into the cell and packs it properly, probably mixing, as may 
be judged from the moist state in which it appears on her re- 
tiring, a little honey with it. 
6. It w^as ascertained by Huber, that wax is the produce of 
the saccharine part of the honey, and that it exudes from the 
bodies of the bees, between the rings of their bellies, in the form 
of small thin scales. In confirmation of this fact, I saw one bee, 
and only one, in the very act of squeezing out thin scales of 
very pure wax from the rings of her belly. She retreated from 
my view before I could discern her after-proceedings. 
7. I observed the queen at one time hard pressed to get quit 
of her egg, and not being able to find a cell readily, she drop- 
ped it on the edge of one, when half a dozen bees, like so many 
dogs after a bone, instantly ran to it and devoured it. 
8. In the honey months of July and August, when the wea- 
ther is very fine, the bees form comb intended for containing 
honey alone, and different from that which is in the first instance 
destined for brood. The texture of this is much thinner, the 
cells considerably larger and deeper ; and as the honey is then, 
in the hot season, of a rarer and more fluid quality, these cells 
are wisely made with a much greater dip or inclination than the 
ordinary ones, that there may be less risk of the liquid running 
over before it is sealed, 
9. It has been often said, that the queen is attended in her 
progress through the hive by a number of her subjects, formed 
in a circle round her, and these have, of course, been called the 
guards of royalty. The truth is, her majesty has no attendants, 
strictly speaking, but wherever she moves, the bees she meets 
with in her progress instantly clear the way for her, and all 
