SOME WAX WASTED.
When constructing comb, they are constantly wasting wax, either accidentally or voluntarily. The next morning after a swarm is located, the scales may be found, and will continue to increase as long as they are working it; the quantity often amounts to a handful or more. It is the best test of comb-making that I can give. Clean off the board and look the next morning, you will find the scales in proportion to their progress. Some will be nearly round as at first; others more or less worked up, and a part will be like fine saw-dust.
Huber and some others have divided the working bees into different classes, denominating some wax-workers, others nurses, and pollen gatherers, &c. It may be partially true, but how it was found out is the mystery.
The angles in the cells used for brood, are gradually filled, and after a time become round, both at the ends and sides.
WATER NECESSARY TO COMB-MAKING.
Whenever bees are engaged making comb, a supply of water is absolutely necessary. Some think it requisite in rearing brood. It may be needed for that, or it may be required for both purposes; but yet I have doubts if a particle is given to the young bee, besides what the honey contains. June, and first part of July, and most part of August (the season of buckwheat,) are periods of extensive comb-making; they then use most water; breeding is carried on from March till October, and as extensively in May, perhaps more so, than in August, yet not a tenth part of the water is used in May.
I have known stocks repeatedly to mature brood from the egg to the perfect bee, when shut in a dark room for months, when it was impossible to obtain a drop; also stocks that stand in the cold, (if good,) will mature some brood whether the bees can leave the hive or not. These facts prove that some are reared without water. As they get sufficient honey to require more comb to store it, they will at the same time have a brood; and it is easy to guess they need it for brood as comb, without a little investigation. This much is certain, that they use water at such times for some purpose, and when no pond, brook, spring, or other source is within convenient distance, the apiarian would find it economy to place some within their reach, as it would save much valuable time, if they would otherwise have to go a great distance, when they might be more profitably employed; it always happens in a season of honey. It should be so situated that the bees may obtain it without jeopardizing their lives;—a barrel or pail has sides so steep that a great many will slip off and drown. A trough made very shallow, with a good broad strip around the edge to afford an alighting place, should be provided. The middle should contain a float, or a handful of shavings spread in the water with a few small stones laid on them to prevent their being blown away when the water is out, is very convenient. A tin dish an inch or so in depth, will do very well. The quantity needed may be ascertained by what is used—only give them enough, and change it daily. I have no trouble of this kind, as there is a stream of water within a few rods of the hives; but I have an opportunity to witness something of the number engaged in carrying it. Thousands may be seen (in June and August) filling their sacks, while a continual stream is on the wing, going and returning.
REMARKS.
The exact and uniform size of their cells is perhaps as great a mystery as anything pertaining to them; yet, we find the second wonder before we are done with the first. In building comb, they have no square or compass as a guide; no master mechanic takes the lead, measuring and marking for the workmen; each individual among them is a finished mechanic! No time is lost as an apprentice, no service given in return for instruction! Each is accomplished from birth! All are alike; what one begins, a dozen may help to finish! A specimen of their work shows itself to be from the hands of master workmen, and may be taken as a model of perfection! He, who arranged the universe, was their instructor. Yes, a profound geometrician planned the first cell, and knowing what would be their wants, implanted in the sensorium of the first bee, all things pertaining to their welfare; the impress then given, is yet retained unimpaired! They need no lectures on domestic economy to tell them, by using the base of one set of cells on one side of their combs, for the base of those on the opposite, will save both labor and wax; no mathematician that a pyramidal base, just three angles, with just such an inclination, will be the exact shape needed, and consume much less wax than round or square—that the base of one cell of three angles, would form a part of the base of three other cells on the opposite side of the comb—that each of the six sides of one cell forms one side of six others around it—that these angles and these only would answer their ends.
"The bees appear," says Reaumer, "to have a problem to solve, which would puzzle many a mathematician. A quantity of matter being given, it is required to form out of it cells, which shall be equal, and similar, and of a determinate size, but the largest possible with relation to the quantity of matter employed, while they shall occupy the least possible space!"