It seems evident that when a bee is frightened she loses her distinctive scent, for driven bees, when they have nothing to fight for, will unite peacefully. And I have known bees of the same hive fight among themselves in a moment of panic, thus affording evidence that the scent of the community has been destroyed for the time, precluding the members of it from recognising their fellows under the stress of the fright.
The scent of the queen is different from that of the workers. This can be noticed especially in the case of a swarm, for workers will often be seen "retrieving" the place over which the queen has passed, even though the trail may be broken: should they fail to find her they will often cluster and die. Because of this it is never advisable to handle a queen, for the bees will notice the change of scent caused thereby and often will kill a queen they do not own; to stranger drones, however, they raise no objection during a honey-flow.
Honey.—It should be clearly understood that, contrary to the assertion of the poet, bees do not "gather honey all the day, from every opening flower." Honey is essentially a product of the bee from the nectar provided by the flowers as an inducement to the visitation of bees and other insects—not for the benefit of the bee but to serve the purposes of the flowers themselves of cross-fertilisation. (See Chapter on "Flowers and Bees," [page 53].) The nectar is assimilated by the bee and regurgitated in the form of honey.
Queen on a patch of Sealed Honey
(This is a diseased frame: notice the irregularity)
Honeycomb.—The honeycomb is doubtless one of the greatest marvels of the bee community. In its architecture and workmanship it forms, indeed, one of the greatest wonders in the whole realm of nature. With its multitudinous hexagonal cells, a honeycomb presents a continuous source of delight; it is so constructed that not a single atom of space is wasted and so designed that the minimum of material is used. Let it be remembered that the honeycomb, primarily, is intended to serve as a nest for the offspring of the queen—each cell to be a separate cradle for the product of the egg placed therein.
As a rule, as we have noted, the cells are six-sided; the exceptions are the queen cells—which are acorn-shaped—and the intermediate cells which form buffers as it were between the worker and drone cells. The latter are always built on the outside edge of the combs. The worker cells are the smallest, and, although the bees hatched from new combs are usually larger than those from old ones, the difference is but slight. The reason for this is that as each bee is hatched it leaves behind in the cell the cocoon in which its metamorphosis was accomplished, and thus diminishes to that extent the size of the cell.
Bees-wax.—The wax of which the cells are composed is produced from the body of the bee itself. It forms in thin plates underneath the abdomen, these plates being kneaded by the jaws into the required consistency and form. When comb-making is in progress the bees cluster together in festoons, very similar in appearance to a swarm. It is, of course, an exceedingly slow process, and the modern bee-keeper, to expedite matters in this direction, assists the bees by giving them ready-made foundation on which to build their cells. Fortunately the bees have proved amenable to this "hustling" process and are thus able to devote a larger part of their short life to the more remunerative work—from the bee-keeper's point of view—of honey-producing.
Chyle Food.—As before stated, this is the rich substance with which the queen is fed, and the worker grub indulged in for a short period. It is regurgitated from the chyle or second stomach of the young or nurse bees. All authorities agree that the power to produce the food gradually diminishes after the insect is a fortnight old. It follows, then, either that the young bees have the power to withhold the supply during a period of rest, or the power to assimilate it is acquired by the older bees, in proportion to their age and the ordinary food they consume, during the period of compulsory-retirement in winter. This semi-hibernation period varies in length in different parts of the country, but in some cases it must last for at least three months, between the date when the last eggs were laid and that when the queen resumes egg-laying again in earnest. Chyle food has a thick, milky-white appearance, an acid flavour, and quickly congeals if exposed to the air. Probably on account of its being fed to the infant bees one of its popular names is "pap" and another "bee's-milk."
Propolis.—This is a substance produced by the bees from the gum which exudes from buds and trees, or the wax given off by some grasses. Propolis emits a wholesome smell and is usually bitter to the taste. It is used by the bees to plug up any holes or cracks in the walls of the hive and to fasten the supers, lifts, frames, and sections together, and also forms their natural disinfectant. Although methylated spirit is violently disliked by bees, yet some forms of spirit varnish are very attractive to them, probably yielding something towards the production of propolis.