. The honey-makers. Bees. Honey-Sac and Wax-Pockets 87 The worker-bee has six abdominal rings, each composed of several pieces, one being on the under side and forming a broad curved plate. The part of each plate on the sec- ond, third, fourth and fifth rings overlapped by the pre- ceding ring is smooth and light colored, and a UtUe sunken so that it forms a shallow well; and when overlapped by the edge of the plate above is the so-called wax-pocket. The tissue inside the bee, beneath these depressions, L^-^iij^.g_ is glandular in structure and secretes a hquid which exudes through the plate t
. The honey-makers. Bees. Honey-Sac and Wax-Pockets 87 The worker-bee has six abdominal rings, each composed of several pieces, one being on the under side and forming a broad curved plate. The part of each plate on the sec- ond, third, fourth and fifth rings overlapped by the pre- ceding ring is smooth and light colored, and a UtUe sunken so that it forms a shallow well; and when overlapped by the edge of the plate above is the so-called wax-pocket. The tissue inside the bee, beneath these depressions, L^-^iij^.g_ is glandular in structure and secretes a hquid which exudes through the plate to the outer surface, where it hardens into a thin transparent scale of wax. These tiny scales are sometimes pushed down by exudations of the wax fluid above, and during the period of most active secretion may often be seen extending partly over the plate below. As the wax forms it is taken as needed from the pockets by the wax-jaws on the last pair of legs and conveyed to the mouth, where it is moulded and mixed with saliva to a consistency and form suitable to comb building. Bee- keepers have often tried to find a substitute for wax, but their artificial products have never been successful, the paraffine and other materials used lacking the necessary consistency and power to resist heat and breaking down in the hive, even when the bees can be induced to use them. The bee consumes vast quantities of honey at certain seasons ; but instead of growing fat thereon, it gives forth wax. Wax is a very cosdy product, the bees using from ten to sixteen pounds of honey to produce one pound of it. Honey and wax have been used as medicine from the earliest times, and wax was the foundation of plasters in past Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Morley, Margaret Warner, 1858-1923. Chicago, A. C. McClur
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherch, booksubjectbees
