March 15, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



205 



for the amoaut of food conanmcd while breeding is going on 

 and as the popnlatioa increases is enormons ; and although 

 honey is collected from the early spring flowers in considerable 

 quantities, there will often be weeks during the prevalence of 

 dry parching winds when nothing will be gathered. Therefore, 

 let every bee-keeper be careful to watch his hives and test the 

 amount of food stored-up within each ttock as he shall be able 

 to do so. Here it is that the common straw hives are so defec- 

 tive. No one can tell properly their condition, as it is im- 

 possible to see anything of their stores. Nor will weighing the 

 hives be of much use, for the young brood in the cells is often 

 very heavy. 



Mr. Pettigrew's advice in a recent number of this Journal 

 (page 130), is worth attending to. I am happy to be able to 

 endorse it to the fall.— B. & W. 



DO BEES EAT POLLEN? 



Weile on a visit to an enthusiastic apiarian a short time ago 

 he took from his bookcase some modern works on bees for me 

 to look at. On opening Mr. Frank Cheshire's little work the 

 following sentence met my eye : — "Mr. Pettigrew, whose prac- 

 tice is more accurate than his philosophy, tells ns that ' bees do 

 not eat pollen ; they die of starvation with a superabundance of 

 it in their hives.'" "But the latter fact," says Mr. Cheshire, 

 " does not prove the former. A man would die of starvation if 

 fed only on Liebig's extract of meat on the one hand, or on 

 arrowroot on the other; but by uniting the two he has aeulhcient 

 diet. So with the bee. With pollen only they would quickly 

 die of cold; with honey alone tissue is soon exhausted, and vital 

 energy slowly but surely extinguished. The physiologist per- 

 fectly understands this matter, and has shown long since that a 

 true proportion of the essential food of animals — tlesh aud heat 

 formers — is necessary, in order that the largest results may be 

 obtained by any given consumption of them." (page 61 ) 



It will be observed that Mr. Cheshire has not attempted to 

 sapport his statement by the evidence of facts. His reference 

 to the well-known physiological fact that heat and flesh are pro- 

 duced in animals from different principles, does not prove that 

 honey does not contain everythinj,' necessary for the health of 

 bees. We know that bees can work well and live a long time 

 without pollen. At the present time I have twenty-two hives, 

 strong in bees and healthy in every respect, that have not a 

 particle of pollen in them, and not a bee in these twenty-two 

 hives has tasted pollen for the last three or four months. Mr. 

 Cheshire may be able to build up pyramids of argument on this 

 point, but they will not outweigh this simple single fact. " Accu- 

 rate philosophy " is generally on the side of facts; and this I 

 believe Mr. Cheshire will readily admit, for he is an honest writer 

 and means well. 



Swarms, on being placed in empty hives, do not gather pollen 

 for some time, though they work hard. In about three days of 

 fine weather, or when some combs are formed, a few bees begin 

 to carry in pollen, which, I believe, is used for nursing purposes 

 only. Bee-bread (or pollen) and water are used in rearing brood, 

 but I have never known adult bees use them on their own tables. 

 I am not aware that anybody can prove that bees eat pollen. 

 Many a time have I given bees honey s'ightly mixed with 

 pollen ; they invariably took the honey and left the pollen in 

 the vessels. Bees have the power of straining or filtering out 

 pure honey from a nasty mixture of honey and pollen. I have 

 referred to twenty-two hives in my garden which have not a 

 particle of pollen in them. I could UDdeitike to put one or 

 more of these hives into a dark cellar, and there keep the bees 

 in perfect health and strength ou either honey or sugar-syrup 

 alone till they die of old age. I hold that honey and sugar con- 

 tain both the heating and ilesh-sustaining elements, and that 

 pollen is not eaten by bees or necessary for their health. No 

 man is better able to place his experience before us in an in- 

 telligible form than Mr. Frank Cheshire, and if he possesses 

 facts on the question disputed, and is thns able to establish the 

 " accuracy of his philosophy," no ore will be more pleased to 

 see them than his sincere friend — A. Pettiohew. 



STEW.\RTON VERSUS STRAW HIVES. 



YouB correspondent " W. J. C." asks "How are we to under- 

 stand that the Stewarton stack was in such excellent condition, 

 while that of the straw ekep was at starvation point ?" I reply. 

 It is very easily understood when it is taken into account that 

 the Stewsrton was the best kind of hive, offering greater facili- 

 ties for its intended purpose and for etoring honey than the 

 straw. In Mr. Lowe's succeeding contribution he used the in- 

 formation I had furnished him and " W. J. C." against me, that 

 the two hives were not on a par to effect equal results, forgetting 

 all the while he was handling a two-edged sword. If they were 

 30, where was his equality theory ? I can assure " W. J. C." he 

 will find it much more difficult to understand that all kinds of 

 hives, whatever be their "form, material, and construction," 

 oconpy a perfect equality or common level than he will that 



the Stewarton is superior to the straw. He never will find 

 perfect equality of results from a variety of bee domiciles, al- 

 though he search fer it, as he did in his last letter, even up 

 a chimney flue. One chimney over another may be so con- 

 structed as to possess a greater back-draught and effect the 

 result as to quantity, and deteriorate the quality by sooting in 

 proportion. 



" W. J. C." uses a rather strong expression as to my competi- 

 tive test hives, that after " being greatly puzzled by your corre- 

 spondent's statement I cannot see it possible." To this 



it is replied I only Btated facts. The honey harvest from both 

 stocks was carefully weighed to an ounce; the condition of both 

 after being deprived was substantiated by two moat experienced 

 and credible witnesses, and I fail to perceive that the adducer 

 of facts is to be held responsible to reconcile such with the 

 notions of every reader. 



" W. J. C." farther says, " Yonr correspondent seems singularly 

 nnfottunate in the shape and working of his ckeps . . . and that 

 too in a very bungling manner." Before these lines appear in 

 print his mind will probably be relieved to find the competitive 

 straw has found its proper level and is otherwise peopled. In- 

 stead of that straw being wrought in a " bungling manner," 

 it was far the best-managed stock in my apiary. The clear 

 proof cf tbis was the thoroughness with which the honey was 

 diverted to the glass, aud the weight and beauty of that glass 

 placed it above its compeers. 



Tbis correspondent narrates some particulars of a visit he 

 paid to the late Mr. Woodbury, and reports the gist of a con- 

 versation that passed between them, which I must confess both 

 puzzled aud surprised me as well as many a reader. Although 

 I never had the good fortune to meet that gentleman, yet we 

 corresponded very frequently for several years. Every letter 

 he wrote me I have carefully preserved ; he presented me with 

 a copy of his treatise, " Bees and Bee-keeping ;" consequently 

 the great apiarian " being dead yet speaketh." It would there- 

 fore be deeply interesting to the present writer as well as every 

 Biitish bee-keeper could your correspondent fix the date of hia 

 visit to Mount Radlord, so as to place on record the time our 

 respected chief changed his opinion as to his much-prized 

 Italians. If early, as the price of the stock would indicate, then 

 I think it can be easily shown he very materially changed hia 

 view as to the value of the yellow-jacket. Our respected father, 

 like all of us who sit at the feet of that good dame Experience, 

 never adopted " fixity " aa a part of his creed. 



As mentioned above, it ia at all times most interesting to the 

 beekeeper the many odd crannies our little favourites take up 

 their quarters in, not so much so, I daresay, from choice as 

 necessity, when overlooked at swarming time by careless owners. 

 In Bible lands " honey from the rock" is the rule, we have the 

 " bee tree " of America, and the still commoner roof colonies 

 of our own country. The first stock tho writer could claim aa 

 hia very own he found well combed, quite open, on the under 

 side of a branch of an Ash tree, and the clergyman's lady re- 

 ferred to in remarks on "Crude Honey" only experience as a 

 bee-mistress was with a stock she discovered ensconced in a 

 high wooden-covered pump well placed in a retired corner of 

 her manse garden.— A Eenfkewshire Bee-keepeb. 



[We can only spare space for facta and fair arguments. — Eds.j 



HIVES. 



It is astonishing how much is expected of our little friend 

 the busy bee. The people who begin bee-keeping and throw it 

 np in disgust after a year or two's experience are very many, 

 for the simple reason that they thick it only necessary to obtain 

 the bees and honey, and increase must of necessity follow with- 

 out any further trouble. This idea is not confined to the un- 

 educated. Many instances have come to my knowledge where 

 ladies and gentlemen of position, who have in the first instance 

 spared no expense in hives and bees, have yet failed to see the 

 necessity of a little after-attention ; indeed, ofttimes they have 

 been too timid to touch the bees or remove the crownboard of 

 the hive. With such people frame hives, sectional supers, and 

 extractors are quite thrown away, and straw skeps are the only 

 hives they are equal to manage. 



Then, again, many persona who are successful enough to derive 

 a moderate profit from their bees are discontented because they 

 cannot obtain supers approaching the size and quality exhibited 

 at our shows, forgetting that these are generally very exceptional 

 reaultp, seldom obtained without the expenditure of great care 

 and skilful management. A man may keep bees for years, 

 manage them well, aud yet net obtain a super of SO Ibg. or 

 100 lbs., or such a harvest from one hive as recorded by "A Een- 

 FREwsniRE Bee-keepeb." It is true I could name perhaps half 

 a dozen gentlemen who are almost sure to come to the front 

 with prize supers. This may partly be ascribed to locality and 

 skill. Huge supers I have long ago discovered and pronounced 

 a mistake. It is true, if perfectly full and all the dangers cf 

 transit to the show are safely passed, a prize may be won, but 

 the winning super is unsaleable. No private person wants to 



