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acquainted with the fact, and return to tht parent hive 
again. Take the queen from a colony, and how soon 
the whole swarm becomes acquainted with the loss. 
Give a queen to a colony that is queenless, and how 
soon a manifestation of pleasure and activity will be 
seen about the hive. As if by common consent, they 
change their former course of procedure ; whereas, they 
were continually constructing queen-cells, they now as 
rapidly destroy them, and commence to carry in pollen 
in anticipation of the wants of the young bees that are 
soon to be added to their numbers. From every appear- 
ance it is certain the bees possess a language^ by which 
they readily communicate with each other. They pro- 
ject and carry out certain labors according to conditions, 
with a fidelity of united action that would do credit to 
intelligent beings. 
BEES- WAX— ITS VALUE AND ELABORATION OF. 
Figure 2 represents the body portion 
of the bee, showing more particularly the 
abdomen, and the manner of manipulat- 
ing wax, w'hich accumulates on the abdo- 
men of the bee, in little fine scales, as 
shown in the figure. 
Wax can hardly be overestimated, cost- 
ing from twenty to twenty-five pounds of 
honey for a single pound of comb. 
The elaboration of wax is performed by the bees 
consuming saccharine matter in sufficient quantities to 
cause an exudation tit the will of the insect, of minute 
scales from the abdomen of the bee, which is composed 
of a series of bands or rings, between which the wax 
appears in minute scales. Thousands of these little 
6 
