CHAPTER IX. HONEY-DEW. THIS material is found on the upper surface of the leaves of trees, has a shining appearance, and is sticky to the touch. Many ignorant people in the country think it falls from the skies during the night. It is simply the product of an insect (aphis) found frequently on the under sides of the leaves of certain trees. This kind of insect is most plentiful in times of prevalent east winds, and it is well known that flowers yield very little honey indeed when the wind comes from either east or north. In these times of scarcity the bees work on these shining leaves, and thus collect honey-dew. Two years ago-both in England and Scotland-considerable quantities of it were gathered and stored in the hives. It is dark in colour-disagreeable both to the eye and the palate. Last year our bees collected so much of it that much of our honey was unsaleable. It was our good luck never to become acquainted with it till 1867; and last year, 1869, we became familiar with it. Some of it is in all our hives, numbering above forty Will it injure the health of the bees? tion we are unable to answer at present. of our bees is great this winter, the dark honey will be blamed for it. Fortunately there is not much of it, compared to the good and pure honey, in the hives—perhaps stocks. This is a quesIf the mortality about one-twelfth part only. But, unfortunately, it does not candy or crystallise like good honey. If the bees eat the liquid black stuff at this dull season of the year, and leave the beautiful crystallised honey untouched, it is to be feared that their ranks will be much thinned during the winter months; for we know that the mortality of bees fed on the best of heather-honey is greater than that of those fed on the honey of fruit-trees and white clover. Honey-dew is a great nuisance to bee-keepers whose aim is profit. It is a great pity that bees touch it at all. CHAPTER X. WAX. WAX is not gathered like honey, or pollen, or propolis. If bees could gather it, it would cost them less than it does. They have to manufacture it at very great expense-great expense to themselves and their owners. As milk is manufactured in the body of the cow, so wax is manufactured in the bodies of bees. It is both a secretion and excretion of bees. In collecting honey, bees carry it in their bladders or bags, and when they wish to make wax and build combs, the honey goes into their intestinal canals, passes into the juices of their bodies, and scales of wax ooze from, or are excreted on the under sides of, their bellies. Wax, then, is a “homespun" article, wholly made or manufactured by the bees themselves. Dr Liebig, in his appendix to his great work on 'Animal Chemistry,' says that "bees have to consume 20 lb. of honey to make 1 lb. of wax, and that 1 oz. of comb holds 1 lb. of honey." We do not vouch for the accuracy of Liebig's calculations or experiments, but they are stated merely to show that wax costs the bee-keeper a great deal more than he gets for it in the market. But we are not quite sure that 20 lb. of honey are consumed in the manufacture of 16 oz. of wax. A swarm was put into an empty hive. This swarm and hive and board would weigh about 17 lb. In seven days after or seven and a half, for the afternoon of the day of swarming was not included-this hive weighed 45 lb., and was filled with combs. These combs, pure and simple, would weigh 2 lb. If 40 lb. of honey were consumed in the production of the 2 lb. of wax, the gathering of this swarm was enormous. Who can believe that this swarm consumed 40 lb. and stored up about 20 lb. of honey in seven days? Liebig's experiments were honestly made, and the results honestly recorded, but no close observer of comb-building in bee-hives will admit that they are, or ever can be, representative in their character. Why? The experiments were made with about 10 oz. of bees-a mere handful. Both the weather and the warmth of a hive have a great influence in combbuilding. Dr Liebig says that it takes thirty-eight hours to convert honey into wax; that is to say, that the laminæ or thin plates of wax do not appear on the bellies of the bees till thirty-eight hours after it has been taken into their intestines. This surely is not correct, for bees that are driven into a hive at six o'clock of a summer evening, often commence to build combs before six o'clock next morning. And if no combs be formed or visible then, there will invariably be seen laminæ or flakes of wax lying on the board inside beneath the swarm. The making or secreting of wax is voluntary on the part of bees; and this is one of the secrets of bee-history that can never be fathomed. Bees do not secrete wax when their hives are filled with combs; but remove the bees from a large full hive into an empty one, and in less than twelve hours they make two or three pieces of comb. Wax is made from syrup or treacle as well as from honey, and neither pollen nor water is necessary in its production. If a swarm were put into an empty hive, and carried to the bottom of a coal-pit, and there fed, combs beautifully white would be the product. But combs made from syrup are more brittle than those made from honey; and combs made from the honey of one kind of plant differ in colour from those made from another kind. In the covers or lids of brood-cells there will be noticed this fact, that they are always like the cells they cover. If the combs are ten years old, and as dark as an Ethiopian's skin, the lids are of the same colour; and if the combs are white the lids are white. Doubtless part of the old combs in the dark hives is used in the manufacture of lids; but why it is so used, or why bees will have lids and combs of the same colour, has ever appeared a very remarkable thing. In Professor Liebig's remarks on wax, there is another statement which is not absolutely correct. He says combs are never built in a hive unless the bees have the presence or prospect of a queen. Now we have seen a second swarm that lost its queen a day or two after being hived, half fill its hive with combs, chiefly of the drone kind. These quotations from Liebig's invaluable book are made, not with a view to combat them, but to let the reader know that the question of wax-making and combbuilding is a very important and interesting one in the history of a bee-hive. In comb-building the bees are wonderfully frugal in the use of wax. We guess that not more than 2 lb. of it is used in the construction of 80,000 cells. It is a very inflammable substance, containing more than 80 per cent of carbon. |