108 
Beekeeping 
Donhoff 1 states that he offered a stick dipped in honey 
to young bees daily. Until they were fifteen days old they 
did not lick the honey eagerly. The younger bees never 
attempted to lick it, but as they grew older they paid more 
attention to it. He concludes that the “impulse for gather¬ 
ing honey” is not developed in young 
bees. Not until his experimental bees 
were seventeen days old did he find any on 
his outdoor feeders and not until they were 
nineteen days old did any fly to the field. 
Comb building. 
If there is need 
for more combs, the 
workers form cur¬ 
tains by hanging on 
one another from 
the top of the hive 
or cavity. The 
temperature is raised 
and in a few hours 
wax-scales may be 
seen on the ventral 
sides of the abdo¬ 
mens of the hang¬ 
ing bees. Finally, 
some of these scales 
are removed and manipulated and the bees begin building 
new comb. The small pieces of wax are put approximately 
in the right place and are then sculptured and molded into 
Fig. 53.—Ventral plates 
of the abdomen of a 
worker bee. 
Fig. 54. — Inner sur¬ 
face of the left 
hind leg of a 
worker bee, show¬ 
ing a wax-scale. 
in a cellar for winter, in connection with work of Demuth and the author 
on winter activities. The entire colony became active and a high tempera¬ 
ture was maintained. The condition was removed by taking the colonies 
from the cellar for a flight. Bees that emerged from brood combs were 
also kept in a warm room, away from older workers. These had distended 
abdomens and if one escaped from the hive it usually flew at once to the 
window, leaving a spot of feces on the pane. 
1 Donhoff, 1855. Eichstiidt Bienenzeitung, p. 163. 
