liable to be attacked by the aphis which yields honeydew. A small quantity of it mixed with pure honey discolours the whole, and makes it quite unsaleable. It never candies or crystallises like good honey. Though bees gather and eat it in times of scarcity, it is improper food even for them.

CHAPTER IX.

WAX.

Wax is not gathered like pollen or propolis. The bees have to manufacture it at very great cost, both 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 bags; and when they wish to make wax and build combs, some of 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 by the bees themselves. Dr Liebig, in the 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 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, hive, and board would

weigh about 17 lb. In seven days it weighed 45 lb., and was filled with combs. These combs, pure and simple, would weigh about 2 lb. If 40 lb. of honey were consumed in their production, the gathering of this swarm was enormous. 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, conclusive in their character; because 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 comb-building.

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 bees till thirty-eight hours after the honey 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 may be seen the lamina or flakes of wax lying on the board beneath the swarm. The making or secreting of wax is voluntary on the part of the bees; and this is one of the secrets of bee-history that can never be fathomed, and must remain veiled for ever from the ken of mortals. Bees do not secrete wax when their hives are filled with combs; but remove the bees into an empty one, and in less than twelve hours they build one or two pieces of comb.

As honey from one kind of plant differs in taste from that of another kind of plant, so wax differs in colour if different kinds of honey are used in its manufacture.

Wax is made from treacle or syrup as well as from honey; but the combs made from these are more brittle than those made from honey.

In the covers or lids of brood-cells there will be no

ticed this fact, that they are always like the cells they cover the cells of dark combs get lids of the same colour, and white combs have white lids. Doubtless part of the old combs are 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.

The question of wax-making and comb-building is a very important and interesting one in the history of a bee-hive, and at present, little is with certainty known. about it. In comb-building, bees are wonderfully frugal in the use of wax. We guess that not more than 2 lb. of it are used in the construction of 80,000 cells. It is a very inflammable substance, containing, as it does, more than 80 per cent of carbon.

CHAPTER X.

BEE-BREAD.

Bees can with great ease pellets sticking on their

This is the pollen of flowers. gather it, and carry it home in hind-legs. Of course the colour of pollen is different in different kinds of flowers. Anciently it was considered crude wax, and even now some novices think it is made

into wax. It is used principally for feeding maggots in their cells, and hence it is termed "bee-bread."

If it were used in comb-building, swarms put into empty hives would gather much of it; but we find that all such swarms do not gather any pollen for some days, or till some combs are built to contain it. In most hives it is stored in their centres where the young are hatched; and often there is stored far too much of it. Though some seasons are remarkable for the abundance of beebread stored up, and though some hives have more than others, it is never in Great Britain a scarce article in hives of bees. The hive that has fewest cells filled, or half filled with it, is generally the most prosperous-all other things being equal. Bees do not eat it, and will die of starvation with a superabundance of it in their combs.

CHAPTER XI.

PROPOLIS AND WATER.

Propolis is a kind of cement used in hives to fill up all holes and cracks, and prevent unnecessary ventilation. It is a substance not absolutely necessary to the wellbeing of a hive; but, doubtless, the bees derive benefit from using it, otherwise they would not collect it. It is a sort of resin or gum, sometimes called bee-glue, and is collected from the buds of poplar and other trees. It is a harder substance than either wax or bee-bread.

Water is largely used in the height of the breeding season. It is used with bee-bread in feeding young bees. It is collected in dewy mornings, and after showers, from

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blades of grass and the leaves of plants. In the absence of showers and dew, bees resort to brooks, rivers, and watertubs for it, often preferring the impure water from manureheaps. The sight of bees seeking and sipping water, is a proof that breeding is going on in their hives. During inclement weather, when not a particle of honey can be obtained, bees often venture out for water.