Propolis
§ 48. Propolis is a resinous substance gathered by the bees from the buds or
limbs of some trees. It is brittle in cold weather, but so sticky in the summer
that the bees apply it immediately to the purposes for which they procure it. It
is used to stop the cracks in the wood of their home, sometimes to reduce too
large an entrance and often to strengthen the combs at their junction with the
walls. They also use it to cover up obstacles which they are unable to remove,
such as partially rotten wood in the hollow trees which they inhabit, or to
cover up and in some manner embalm the bodies of large insects or the bones of
mice which have found their way into the hive and have been stung to death by
them.
It is conveyed to the hive, in the pollen baskets, (27, Fig 15, 16) in the same
manner as pollen, already mentioned. Such is the intelligent wisdom of those
little insects that they rarely gather propolis when honey may be had. They
evidently know that the honey will waste in the flowers if not removed without
delay or is mainly gormandize? During dull, dry summers, large quantities of
propolis are sometimes gathered and the entire inner walls of the hive thickly
coated with it (82).
