After having dried the wound, a small quantity of wax applied to it will stop the pain, and prevent swelling.*

* I have adopted this plan on various occasions, and have found it invariably successful.

CHAPTER VI.

ON THE CONTENTS OF THE HIVE.

HONEY.

HONEY is the liquid matter which the bee gathers by means of its proboscis or tongue, by plunging it into the calyx of the flower. As we shall show later on, honey is made use of in forming the wax destined for the construction of the comb; but it is also used for feeding the bees, and for satisfying many different wants.

WAX.

Wax is the produce of a secretion from honey. Duchet, chaplain at the castle of Remauffens, in the canton of Fribourg, was the first to prove this fact, and to demonstrate it clearly, more than a hundred years ago, in opposition to the theory of Réaumur.

It is maintained that this secretion takes
place by means of the rings of the abdomen;
but from observations which we have made
while the bees have been constructing their
comb, we have always observed that they work
with their tongue or proboscis, and with their
mandibles.*

Wax is a substance secreted from honey;
although certain bee-masters have erroneously
maintained, and still do maintain, that pollen
is unwrought wax, or at least the substance
which becomes so by the operation of the bees.
Wax is made use of in building combs, com-
posed of small hexagonal cells, destined accord-
ing to their size to the rearing of the different
kinds of bees which exist in a hive, and later
on, with the exception of those appropriated to
the queens, for the storing of honey or pollen.

POLLEN.

Pollen is the seminal dust which is found on
the stamen of the flower, and which the worker

* Wax, when secreted, exudes in thin lammæ from the wax-
pockets situate in the abdomen, and is then manipulated by the
mandibles.-Trans.

bees collect as they flit from one flower to another. They are sometimes covered with this dust when they return to the hive. As a rule they carry it, when collected, in a small cavity in their hind legs, to which the name of pollen-basket has been given, as we mentioned above. They use it mixed with honey to feed the young, and mixed with wax to seal up the cells when the young have been brought to perfection.

Pollen, if stored in the combs in too large quantities, deteriorates in the winter under the influence of the damp; but when preserved in good condition, the bees use it as early as January and February, for feeding the young. It is necessary, therefore, to ascertain in the spring and autumn whether the weight of a hive is caused by the honey which it contains, or by too large an accumulation of pollen. In the latter case, the bee-master may possibly see his colony die of hunger, imagining all the time that it is amply provided for. It is only by removing the comb that this fact can be ascertained.

PROPOLIS.

Propolis is a sticky substance like resin.
It is gathered from certain trees, and is made
use of by the bees for closing up all the small
crevices in the interior of their hive, and for
fixing the hive to the floor-board, so as effec-
tually to bar the entrance against any enemy
from without.