Of course the first product of bees, not only to attract attention, but also in importance, is honey. And what is honey? We can only say that it is a sweet substance gathered from flowers and other sources, by the bees. We cannot, therefore, give its chemical composition, which would be as varied as the sources from which it comes. We cannot even call it a sugar, for it may be, and always is composed of various sugars, and thus it is easy to understand why honey varies so much in richness, color, flavor, and effects on digestion. In fact, it is very doubtful if honey is a manufactured article at all. It seems most likely that the bees only collect it as it is distilled by myriad leaves and flowers, and store it up, that it may minister to their and our necessities. To be sure, some writers contend that it undergoes some change while in the bee's stomach; but the rapidity with which they store, and the seeming entire similarity between honey and sugar fed to them, and the same immediately extracted from the comb, has led me to believe that the transforming power of the stomach is very slight, if, indeed, it exists at all. To be sure, I have fed sugar, giving bees empty combs at night-fall, and found the flavor of honey early the next morning. In this case, honey might have been already in the bees' stomachs, or might have been carried from other portions of the hive. The method of collecting the honey has already been described. The principles of lapping and suction are both involved in the operation.
When the stomach is full, the bee repairs to the hive, and regurgitates its precious load, either giving it to the bees or storing it in the cells. Mr. Doolittle claims that the bees that gather, give all their honey to the other bees, which latter store it in the cells. This honey remains for some time uncapped that it may ripen, by which process the water is partially evaporated, and the honey rendered thicker. If the honey remains uncapped, or is removed from the cells, it will generally granulate, if the temperature be reduced below 70°. This is probably owing to the presence of the cane-sugar, and is a good indication, as it denotes superior quality. Some honey, as that from the South, and some from California, seems to remain liquid indefinitely. Some kinds of our own honey crystallize much more readily than others. But that granulation is a test that honey is pure, is untrue; that it is a sign of superior excellence, I think quite probable.
When there are no flowers, or when the flowers yield no sweets, the bees, ever desirous to add to their stores, frequently essay to rob other colonies, and often visit the refuse of cider mills, or suck up the oozing sweets of various plant or bark lice, thus adding, may be, unwholesome food to their usually delicious and refined stores. It is a curious fact that the queen never lays her maximum number of eggs except when storing is going on. In fact, in the interims of honey-gathering, egg-laying not infrequently ceases altogether. The queen seems discreet, gauging the size of her family by the probable means of support.
Again, in times of extraordinary yields of honey, the storing is so rapid that the hive becomes so filled that the queen is unable to lay her full quota of eggs; in fact, I have seen the brood very much reduced in this way, which, of course, greatly depleted the colony. This might be called ruinous prosperity. The natural use of the honey is to furnish the mature bees with food, and when mixed with pollen, to form the diet of the young bees.
Fig. 27.
Under-side Abdomen, magnified. a, a, etc.—Wax pellets. | Wax-Scales in situ, magnified. w—Wax-scale. |
WAX.
The product of the bees, second in importance, is wax. This is a solid, unctious substance, and is, as shown by its chemical composition, a fat-like material, though not as some authors assert, the fat of bees. As already observed, this is a secretion formed in pellets, the shape of an irregular pentagon ([Fig, 27, w], underneath the abdomen. These pellets are light-colored, very thin and fragile, and are secreted by and molded upon the membrane towards the body from the wax-pockets. Neighbour speaks of the wax oozing through pores from the stomach. This is not the case, but, as with the synovial fluid about our own joints, is formed by the secreting membrane, and does not pass through holes, as water through a sieve. There are four of these wax-pockets on each side, and thus there may be eight wax-scales on a bee at one time. This wax can be secreted by the bees, when fed on pure sugar, as shown by Huber, which experiment I have verified. I removed all honey and comb from my observing-hive, left the bees for twenty-four hours to digest all food which might be in their stomachs, then fed pure sugar, which was better than honey, as Prof. R. F. Kedzie has shown by analysis that not only filtered honey, but even the nectar which he collected right from the flowers themselves, contains nitrogen. The bees commenced at once to build comb, and continued for several days, so long as I kept them confined. This is, as we should suppose; sugar contains hydrogen and oxygen in proportion to form water, while the third element, carbon, is in the same or about the same proportion as the oxygen. Now, the fats usually contain little oxygen, and a good deal of carbon and hydrogen. Thus, the sugar by losing some of its oxygen would contain the requisite elements for fat. It was found true in the days of slavery in the South, that the negroes of Louisiana, during the gathering of the cane, would become very fat. They ate much sugar; they gained much fat. Now, wax is a fat-like substance, not that it is the animal fat of bees, as often asserted—in fact it contains much less hydrogen, as will be seen by the following formula from Hess:
| Oxygen | 7.50 |
| Carbon | 79.30 |
| Hydrogen | 13.20 |
—but it is a special secretion for a special purpose, and from its composition, we should conclude that it might be secreted from a purely saccharine diet, and experiment confirms the conclusion. It has been found that bees require about twenty pounds of honey to secrete one of wax.