78 
THE IIIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
but as this natural varnish impairs their snowy whiteness, 
the bees ought not to be allowed access to combs in the 
surplus honey-receptacles, except when actively engaged 
in storing them with honey. 
Bees make a very liberal use of propolis to fill any 
crevices about their premises ; and as the natural summer- 
heat of the hive keeps it soft, the bee-moth selects it as a 
place of deposit for her eggs. Hives ought, therefore, to 
be made of lumber entirely free from cracks. The corners, 
which the bees usually fill with propolis, may have a melted 
mixture run into them, consisting of three parts of resin 
and one of bees-wax; this remaining hard during the 
hottest weather, will bid defiance to the moth. 
As bees find it difficult to gather propolis, and equally 
60 to work so sticky a material, they should be saved all 
unnecessary labor in amassing it. To men, time is money / 
to bees, it is honey ; and all the arrangements of the hive 
should be such as to economize it to the utmost. 
Propolis is sometimes put to a very curious use by the 
bees. “ A snail,* having crept into one of M. Reaumur’s 
hives early in the morning, after crawling about for some 
time, adhered, by means of its own slime, to one of the 
glass panes. The bees having discovered the snail, sur¬ 
rounded it, and formed a border of propolis round the 
verge of its shell, and fastened it so securely to the glass 
that it became immovable. 
‘ Forever closed the impenetrable door; 
It naught avails that in its torpid veins 
Year after year, life’s loitering spark remains.’ 
Evans. 
“ Maraldi, another eminent Apiarian, states that a snail 
without a shell having entered one of his hives, the bees, 
as soon as they observed it, stung it to death; after which, 
• Bevan. 
