122 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Feb. 15 



besides, there is the pleasure of meeting old 

 acquaintances and makin^ new ones. 



I have the report before me of the Sioux 

 City, Iowa, meeting; and among a great 

 many other good things I notice, first, what 

 President Hilton said when it was proposed 

 to locate the meetings at some central place; 

 also what Mr. Dadant said endorsing the 

 president's views. I wish to voice my own 

 sentiment in this matter. Mr. Hilton and 

 Mr. Dadant thought that, to locate the meet- 

 ings in one place, would deprive many of go- 

 ing on account of the distance to travel. Al- 

 though it is very desirable to have as many 

 as possible of those present that attend al- 

 most every year, many new ones are need- 

 ed, so that there may be an exchange of 

 views, methods, etc. Now, it is my opinion 

 that, if all the meetings were held at one 

 point, the death-knell of the Association 

 would be sounded, and most of the bee-keep- 

 ers in the United States would lose interest 

 in both the meetings and in the Association. 



The by-laws of the Missouri State Bee- 

 keepers' Association forbid holding a meet- 

 ing in the same place twice in succession. 

 Violating the by laws has been suggested 

 more than once; but I have always opposed 

 doing so. While we have had meetings in 

 some places that were unsolicited by any of 

 the local bee-keepers, in almost every in- 

 s ance where we did this these local bee- 

 keepers did not attend well. 



Our best meetings have been held where 

 the local bee keepers were interested enough 

 to give a pressing invitation and to attend all 

 the sessions. We always have a rousing 

 convention on such occasions I am oppos- 

 ed to going anywhere without an invitation 

 unless there is a special reason for doing so. 

 There are many bee-keepers in my own 

 county; but very few take any interest in at- 

 tending a convention, and for this reason I 

 would do my best against locating our State 

 meeting at this place permanently. I believe 

 in passing the appointments around. 



Mexico, Mo. 



ARTinCIAL SUBSTITUTES FOR POL- 

 LEN. 



Can such Substitutes be Fed Inside the 



Hive During a Time when it is too 



Cold lor Bees to Fly? 



BY F. DUNDAS TODD. 



If I am to judge from the reports that ap- 

 peared in the various bee journals, the out- 

 stjnding feature of the spring of 1909, so far 

 as it concerned bee-keepers, was the mark- 

 ed dearth of pollen. I happened to be spe- 

 cially interested in the matter, and so noted 

 careiully the various communications, being 

 rather surpr sed to see tha', over the whole 

 continent, the one complaint was made. 

 Somt peculiarity of the seasonal conditions 

 had in most localities prevt nted the d'^velop- 

 ment of the necessary fructifying material in 

 the plants; but on Vancouver Island our sit- 

 uation was even more exasperating, for all 



around us was a wealth of pollen in the wil- 

 lows; but the weather remained so persis- 

 tently cool that the bees could not fly for 

 weeks. The first loads were carried in Feb. 

 22, but from that date until April 3 there was 

 scarcely a day warm enough for the bees to 



fly- 

 In my own case the situation was a highly 

 critical one. In September I had fed the 

 bees until every hive contained at least 25 

 pounds of actual weight in stores. Colonies 

 have been known to go through the winter 

 here on 12 pounds; so I felt every thing was 

 safe and sound. After a zero wave early in 

 January I was astounded to find one-third of 

 the colonies dead of starvation, while the 

 others were on the verge. Now, pollen had 

 been carried in freely all the fall; but in 

 the dead hives there was not a scrap, and 

 mighty little in the others. Candy was at 

 once given above the frames; but what to do 

 in the matter of givmg a substitute for pol- 

 len was the crucial problem. As a matter of 

 fact I did nothing, for the very good reason 

 I did not know ^^hat to do. 



The plan of giving flour out of doors I was 

 familiar with theoretically; but since the 

 temperature was too cold for the bees to fly 

 this method was entirely unavailable. So 

 all I could do was to hope for the best, and 

 watch one colony after another gradually 

 fade away of what is generally called "spring 

 dwindling," but which one writer recently 

 labeled "pollen- dearth." When the weath- 

 er did get warm enough for the bees to fly I 

 found myself owner of only one-third tne 

 number of colonies that had been put away 

 for the winter, all weak ones at that. 



Naturally there arises the problem, "Is 

 there a practicable method of giving a sub- 

 stitute for pollen in the hives? " All through 

 February and March I searched bee litera- 

 ture in vain for light on this subject, but it 

 was not until faU that I got track of any 

 thing that looked feasible. When the sea- 

 son's work was over I decided to read care- 

 fully every book in my possession, just to 

 see that I had not missed some useful hint 

 that was not considered by the authors to be 

 of sufficient importance to be indexed, and 

 soon I stumbled over one sentence that was 

 suggestive but not at all explicit. 



"The Book of Bee-keeping" is a Chicago 

 reprint from plates of what is apparently an 

 edition originally published in England. At 

 the end of a paragraph on spring feeding I 

 found this sentence: "Flour candy can be 

 given with advantage at this season of the 

 year;" not a word anywhere as to how it 

 should be made, whether the flour should be 

 added at the beginning of the cooking, the 

 middle, or the end. So the only interpreta- 

 tion possible is 'his: Artificial pollen in the 

 form of fl <ur can be given provided it is 

 mixed in the syrup of which the candy is 

 made. 



The search had now become interesting, 

 so all American bee books were gone through 



f>age by page, and at last I was rewarded by 

 inding a tew sentences on the subject in 

 Mrs. Comstock's "How to Keep Bees." On 



