WATER FOR BEES 
869 
verted over one of these boards will keep 
the saw-cuts filled with water, where the 
bees can get all they require without even 
wetting their feet. If one of these is fur¬ 
nished in the apiary the bees will not be 
likely to bother the neighbors. A closed 
vessel containing water is much better than 
a tub or pan of water, as the water cannot 
become stale and bad. Sometimes when 
one of these special fonts is first set out 
the bees will pay no attention to it, espe¬ 
cially after they have been in the habit of 
visiting the neighbors’ pumps and water¬ 
ing-troughs. They can, as a rule, be start¬ 
ed by sweetening the water or by adding a 
little salt, for bees are fond of salt also. 
When bees are compelled to go a distance 
for water they wear themselves out unnec¬ 
essarily, and, during chilly weather in the 
spring, many never get back. 
The statement was made above that when 
bees are in the fields, bringing in new 
honey, they require less water than at 
times when no honey is coming in. It is 
probable that the excess of water removed 
during the ripening process, as explained 
under Ventilation, supplies the bees with 
the proper amount of moisture. 
Bees also need some 
water during midwin¬ 
ter; but usually the 
moisture produced by 
condensation from the 
breathing of the bees 
will be sufficient. It was 
once argued that they 
should be supplied with 
water while in the cel¬ 
lar. If a wet sponge is 
placed on a cluster 
they will take up the 
water quite rapidly. 
This would seem to 
prove that they should 
have an artificial 
supply; but general practice has shown 
that no special provision need be made. 
It would be impracticable to give bees 
water when wintered outdoors; and it 
would hardly be necessary, because if one 
will examine down into a brood-nest 
during winter he will see considerable 
moisture around the inside of the hive 
and on the under side of the cover. 
In taking carloads of bees from south 
to north and from north to south, it will 
be found impracticable to make these long 
trips in open cars without a barrel of water. 
If the weather is hot and sultry, bees, on 
account of their excitement, often require 
a large amount of water. This water must 
be supplied at intervals of every few hours 
or many bees will die. In some shipments 
of bees from south to north during hot or 
warm weather, a carload of bees has been 
known to take up seven or eight barrels 
of water. The water allays thirst and 
cools the cluster by evaporation. 
When bees are shipped in refrigerator 
cars as explained under Shipping Bees, 
no water would be needed. 
While bees seem to gather water at 
times, they also appear to have a delicate 
apparatus of some sort for extracting 
water from nectar, and for discharging it 
or a part of it in flight. When they are 
fed outdoors with sweetened water, as de¬ 
scribed under Outdoor Feeding, they will 
immediately, on taking flight, discharge a 
fine spray of water. If one will station 
himself between the feeders and the sun¬ 
light he will be able to perceive these bees, 
on rising from the feeder, discharging this 
thin fine spray. 
That it is pure water and not sugar can 
be proven by tasting it. That bees also 
discharge water when gathering thin nec¬ 
tar from the fields was proved by A. I. 
Root many years ago. When bees are 
gathering a large quantity of nectar from 
a single blossom they will, on rising from 
the plant, discharge the excess in the form 
of a thin spray. Enough of this spray fell 
on some dinner plates to be distinctly per¬ 
ceptible, but the taste showed nothing but 
water. 
WAX. —This is a term that is applied to 
a large class of substances very much re¬ 
sembling one another in external charac¬ 
teristics, but quite unlike chemically. The 
wax of commerce may be divided into four 
general groups: Beeswax, familiar to all; 
mineral wax, or by-products from petro¬ 
leum ; wax from plants, and wax from in¬ 
sects other than bees. The first two are 
by far the most important commercially in 
this country. Of the mineral waxes the 
most common are paraffin and ceresin, 
