nd do not come out of the hive in bad weather; for when they
do, this indicates that they are in great want of provisions.

They are alert on the least disturbance; and by the loudness of their
humming, you can judge of their strength. They preserve their hives
free from filth, and are ready to defend it against every enemy that
approaches.

But the better plan is at once to commence with new hives, and purchase
the first and strong swarms to put into them, and introduce them into
the bee-house.

There are various substances found in a hive, such as the _wax_, with
which the combs are built, the _honey_, the _farina_ or _pollen_, with
which the bee-brood is fed, and _propolis_.

_Honey_, is a fluid or semi-fluid substance, the materials of which are
collected by the bees, from the nectaries at the base of the corollae of
flowers, where this vegetable production is secreted.

It cannot be said to be a purely vegetable production when found
in the combs, for after being collected by the insect by means of its
proboscis, it is transmitted into what is called the honey bag, where it
is elaborated, and, hurrying homewards with its precious load, the bee
regurgitates it into the cell of the honey comb. It takes a great many
drops to fill a cell, as the honey bag when full does not exceed the
size of a small pea.

When the cell is full, it is sealed up with a mixture of of wax and
pollen, and reserved for future use in winter and spring.

_Wax_. There are several varieties of this substance, but bees-wax is a
secretion of that insect from its ventral scales. With this substance
the comb is constructed; it takes the bees, according to Huber's
account, twenty-four hours to secrete the six laminae of wax in the wax
pockets, which may be seen to exude between the segments of the under
side of the abdomen of the bee. For the purpose of the formation of wax,
the bees have to cluster and form themselves into festoons from the top
of the hive, and after the elapse of the necessary period, the wax
scales are formed, with which the bees commence immediately to build
their combs, and the various cells for the reception of the brood or
food, according to the season of the year.

_Propolis_, is a tenacious, semi-transparent substance, having a
balsamic odour; which the bees gather from the buds of certain trees in
the spring, such as the horse-chestnut, the willow, the poplar, and the
birch.

This tenacious substance is employed