328 



STATE EOAED OF AGEICULTUKE. 



Fig. 11. 

 The comb furnishes C3II3 for the storage of honey, and in which to rear brood. 



POLLEN OR BEE-BREAD. 



This substance, like honey, is not secreted, nor manufactured by the bees, 

 only collected. The bees usually obtain it from the stamens of flowers. But if 

 they gain access to flour when there is no bloom, they will take this in lieu of 

 pollen, in which case the former term used above becomes a misnomer, though 

 usually the bee-bread consists almost wholly of pollen. 



As already intimated, the jiollen is conveyed in the pollen baskets of the pos- 

 terior legs, to which it is conveyed by the other legs, and compressed into little 

 oval masses. The motions in this conveyance are exceedingly rapid. The bees 

 not infrequently come to the hives, not only with replete pollen baskets, but 

 with their whole under surface thoroughly dusted. Dissection will also show 

 that the same bee may have her sucking stomach distended with honey. Thus 

 the bees make the most of their opportunities. It is a curious fact that the bees, 

 during any trip, gather only a single kind of pollen, or only gather from one 

 species of bloom. Hence, while ditferent bees may have different colors of pol- 

 len, the pellets of bee-bread on any single bee will be uniform in color through- 

 out. It is possible that the material is more easily collected and compacted 

 when homogeneous. 



The pollen is usually deposited in the small or worker cells, and is unloaded 

 by a scraj)ing motion of the posterior legs, the polleii baskets being first lowered 

 into the cells. The bee thus freed leaves the wlieat-like masses thus deposited 

 to be packed by other bees. The cells, which may or may not have the same 



