Origin—Production—Chemical Constitution—Comb Building—Detailed Description—Amount of Wax in Hives—Commercial Value—Properties.
Fig. 10.—A Worker Bee, showing the Scales of Wax.
It was long thought that wax was a product derived, like honey, immediately from flowers. Not only did popular ignorance suppose that the pellets of pollen carried on the thighs of the worker-bees consisted of this substance, but even some authors on apiculture fell into the same error. It is now ascertained with certainty that wax is a sort of animal fat, elaborated from honey by certain internal organs of the bee. It exudes in a liquid form from sacklets on the under side of each of the four intermediate ventral segments of the abdomen. There are two of these pockets to each segment, one on either side of the carina or elevated central part. They are trapeziform in shape, and impart the same form to the tiny plates which emerge from them. On reaching the air the liquid thickens, and dries in flakes like fish-scales. The secretion of wax is carried on by the workers only, queens and drones being destitute of the apparatus necessary for the purpose. No direct communication has been traced between the stomach and the wax-sacks, but it has been conjectured by Hunter that the secretion is effected by the network of vessels lining the receptacles as a membrane covered with hexagonal cells, somewhat like the second stomach of ruminating quadrupeds.
Chemically considered, wax consists entirely of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen; and, as before mentioned, is elaborated wholly from honey. Some authors have maintained that pollen is necessary for its production, but this is the case probably only indirectly; that is to say, the nitrogenous constituent of pollen may be necessary for the nutriment and stimulation of the secreting organs. It certainly does not enter into the constitution of the wax itself.
The quantity of honey required for this process of wax-making is very large. It is generally believed, in fact, to be from fifteen to twenty times the weight of the material derived from it; in other words, for every ounce of wax produced, at least a pound of honey is consumed by the bees. During the oxygenation of so large a quantity of saccharine matter, much heat is evolved a fact frequently noticed when comb-building is going on rapidly in a hive.
Fig. 11.—Festoons of Bees Suspended from the Roof of the Hive.
When wax is required for the abode of a fresh swarm, or for filling up vacant spaces with comb, the bees hang in festoons or chains, crossing the hive in different directions. Remaining almost motionless for about twenty-four hours, the wax-makers proceed with their business. Then, as soon as the little scales are of the proper consistency, they are withdrawn by the pincers on the hind legs of the bee, and carried between the fore-legs to the mouth. There, worked up with a small quantity of saliva, the substance is softened ready for use, and being conveyed away by those who have prepared it, and deposited in small masses, it furnishes the materials from which the comb-builders do their share of the duties of the hive. Possibly some of the individuals of the lower parts of the festoons, or clusters, may pass up their portions of wax to those above them for transmission to the top of the hive; but the fact is not thoroughly ascertained. Evans graphically says:—
"Lo, filtered through yon flutterer's folded mail,