Curiosities & wonders > New observations on the natural history of bees

ORIGIN OF WAX.
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instead of supplying our bees with honey,
1 we fed them on nothing except fruit and
parina. They were kept eight days in cap¬
tivity, under a glass hell with a comb, hav¬
ing only farina in the cells : Yet they nei¬
ther made wax, nor were scales seen under
(the rings. Could any doubt exist as to
the real origin of wax ?—-We entertained
none.
It was not improbable that wax might be
contained in honey, and reserved for use by
,the bees as requiring it, for some particles
always rise to the surface of honey diluted
?with water. But the microscope indicated
,them to be fragments of cells previously
made.
However, to obviate any objection, and to
ascertain whether the saccharine principle
was the real source of wax, we supplied a
swarm confined in a glass hive with a pound
of refined sugar reduced to syrup. In order
to render the experiment more instructive, by
comparison, two swarms were introduced
into other two hives, one of which we fed
with very dark brown sugar, and the other
with honey.
The result proved as satisfactory as could
be expected: wax was obtained in all the