Clings the cooled wax, and hardens to a scale.
Swift, at her well-known call, the ready train
(For not a buzz boon Nature breathes in vain)
Spring to each falling flake, and bear along
Their glossy burdens to the builder-throng."
It often happens that the fine scales fall by accident, or perhaps, when superabundant in quantity, on to the floor-boards of hives, and it does not appear, from our observation, that those bees who happen to come upon these little portions of material carry them up for employment in cell-formation.
The wax is used in comb-building, and the subject is one of great interest on many accounts, but especially from the following considerations: the nature of the material; the organs by which it is produced; the implements with which it is fashioned into shape; the manner in which the work is done; the form of the cells, the mathematical characters of which are most surprising; their different sizes and shapes, according to the purposes for which they are destined; their perfect adaptation to the needs of the bee community.
With regard to the nature of the material, in addition to the facts already mentioned, we may note that it is a substance easily moulded, especially when exposed to a gentle heat, such as is generated in a hive. It is light, so as to add little to the weight of the contents which will be stored in the cells. It is also a very slow conductor of heat, a matter of great importance both in summer and in winter. For, if it readily both absorbed and radiated heat, the temperature would, in the former season, become too high; while, in the winter, too great effort, and a large additional amount of food, would be needed by the bees to keep up the temperature of the hive to a point of safety for its inhabitants. Again, wax is a material which, by means of propolis (of which we shall presently speak), admits of being fastened in position so securely as to be able to bear a great weight of brood, honey, and bee-bread, in the cells.
The organs by which wax is secreted, and the implements with which it is fashioned, will be described fully in the chapter devoted to the physiology and anatomy of the bee; but we may say here that they are exceedingly simple, and that it is wonderful such beautiful work can be accomplished by means of them.
But the manner in which comb-building is done is so marvellous, that it merits a detailed description. It is to Huber that we are indebted for the full exposition of this subject, and we cannot do better than quote his account of the process, as given by Kirby and Spence. We must premise, however, that the great naturalist thought there were two distinct classes of workers, the one of which he called the wax-makers; the other, the nurse-bees. Observations continued since his day have rendered it certain that this is a mistaken distinction. As a general rule the care of the young devolves, as we have already said, on the most recently hatched of the community, who are unfit, for some days after emerging from the cell, to take distant flight in search of stores from flowers. The older and stronger workers, on the other hand, go abroad for supplies, and then, on their return, secrete whatever wax is needed in the economy of the hive.