Hints on the History and Management of the Honey Bee

Synopsis

The bees collect also another substance called propolis, of a resinous nature. This is collected from certain trees, to fasten the combs to the roof of the hives, to varnish and strengthen the cell-work, and to stop up the crannies of the hive. This substance is used as soon as collected, while it is soft, none of it being stored, for its collectors are well aware that in a short time it would become so hard as to lose its ductility.

In the generality of seasons the bees obtain their principal stores of honey from the flowers of the fields, but they also, in some seasons, collect it much more abundantly from the leaves of several sorts of trees, on which it is deposited in the form of honey-dew, a very sweet substance which, having been sucked from the aforesaid leaves by an insect called the aphis or tree-louse, passes through its body nearly unchanged, covers those leaves which are beneath, and thus affords a delicious repast to bees, butterflies, and other insects. 

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