PROPOLIS. 
19 
seems to be gathered from the buds of various kinds of trees, 
as the balm-of-gilead, poplar, &c. When bees have access to 
newly varnished furniture, they will collect varnish for the 
same purpose. The fact that bees have sometimes been 
known to alight on the coffins of their keepers, has doubtless 
given rise to the superstition that they are aware of their death 
and have thus joined the family in mourning their departure. 
HONEY-COMB. 
Combs are used for storing honey, for nests for the young, 
and as a warm harbor for the bees in winter. It is not made 
of the yellow bee-bread that bees carry on their legs, as many 
suppose, but it is an animal secretion from the body of the 
bee as milk is from the cow. Bees seem possessed of the 
power of producing it whenever needed. The substance 
used to manufacture it is honey or some other saccharine 
matter. Enclose a colony of bees in a hive'hnd feed them 
honey or dissolved sugar, and they will construct combs and 
fill them with the same. Remove these and continue to feed 
them, and they will construct more comhs. It is generally 
calculated that it will require about twenty pounds of honey 
to make one pound of comb, so that to feed bees to induce 
them to make combs is rather expensive ; and it is good 
economy to save all the combs possible ; hence the impropri- 
ety of patronizing the peddler of a cheap compound of sugar, 
Cuba honey, and water, or anything else to feed bees for the 
purpose of constructing combs and storing honey, for market. 
It will take twenty pounds of the compound to make one 
pound of comb, and, in the process of storing the honey, per- 
haps one-third is consumed by the bees ; and when it is 
stored, the honey, as will be seen by referring to the article 
on honey, will be of the same quality as the article fed ; so 
that it would be far better economy to eat the article instead 
of feeding it to the bees. The small scales of wax of which 
the combs are composed ooze out between the rings on the 
under side of the abdomen of the bee. These small pieces 
are taken and worked into the structure of combs. Many of 
these small scales which have been dropped by the bees, may 
generally be found on the bottom board the next morning 
after a colony has been hived. 
A certain temperature in a hive is necessary in order that 
wax may work well, so that a large number of bees is always 
