1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



319 



" Why," said she, "if I had stationary tins I 

 should have to fuss and fuss to get the sections 

 in, because I have to get them in their exact 

 position before they will drop on to the lins." 



" Yes," said I, " but others say they can fill 

 supers with stationary tins faster." 



" Well," said she, with an invincible look in 

 her eyes as she picked up a bundle of loose tins, 

 "I should like to know how those people are 

 going to clean the propolis off from them when 

 they are fastened firmly to the super. All we 

 have to do is to throw a bundle of them into a 

 kettle of hot water, and they are clean." 



I meekly said nothing. 



"Then," interposed the doctor, ''the loose 

 lins give us a great advantage in pushing out 

 the sections en masse.'''' 



All this I explained to Mr. Harry Lathrop, 

 when I saw him later. 



" Why," said he. " I have no trouble in clean- 

 ing the T tins. With a putty-knife I scrape 

 them off easily." 



Later on, in talking with some one in Chica- 

 go, I do not remember now who it was, that 

 person remarked that, " with loose T tins, and 

 the super pretty nearly full, the whole business 

 is liable to tumble out in handling." 



If I remember correctly, Mr. Lathrop urged 

 the same point. 



There, now, I believe I have given you both 

 sides so far as I know them. I presume the 

 doctor will continue to use loose T tins because 

 he has become accustomed to them; and 1 pre- 

 sume likely, also, the other fellows will continue 

 to use their ways.— Ed.] 



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BY G.M.DOOUITTLE.BORO DINO.N .Y. 



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POLLEN IN SECTIONS. 



Question. — Why do bees store pollen in sec- 

 tions? I had one colony the past season store 

 large quantities of pollen in the honey-boxes, 

 while the other colonies stored very little, if 

 any. 



Answer.— The storing of pollen in the sur- 

 plus-apartment is largely brought about by the 

 queen filling the brood -chambers so full of 

 brood that there is not room enough for all of 

 the needed pollen below. This is a thing that 

 does not very often happen when a large hive 

 is used; but with our small brood-chambers of 

 the present day it is not at all unusual for this 

 state of affairs to exist where no honey-board 

 or queen-excluder is used. The queen-exclud- 

 ing honey-board, made of perforated zinc and 

 wood, is a great help along this line, and I 

 think it would well pay for using, on this ac- 

 count ajone, where the brood-chamber used 

 was not larger than one division of the Heddon 

 hive. Then there is the break- joint honey- 

 board, which is almost entire proof against the 

 storing of pollen in the sections. Perhaps some 

 of the younger readers of CJleaninos do not 

 know what a break-joint honey board is. It is 

 a honey-board so made that the openings from 

 the brood-chamber to the surplus-apartment 

 come directly over the center of the top-bar to 



each frame, instead of being over the passage- 

 ways between the combs, as our honey-boards 

 of the past were made. This causes the bees 

 to come up over the top-bars to the frames to 

 get into the sections, or gives a crooked pas- 

 sageway, instead of the continuous passageway 

 of our fathers. Such a circuitous route causes 

 the bees to think that the room above is not a 

 part of the brood-chamber, so they do not 

 store pollen in it, for pollen is, as a rule, stored 

 close to the brood. For the same reason, large 

 hives give the same results, as in this case there 

 is usually quite an amount of sealed honey be- 

 tween the brood in the hive below and the sur- 

 plus-arrangement above. However, it is claim- 

 ed that bees will not work as well in boxes 

 where they can store large quantities of honey 

 below before they commence in the sections, so 

 it is thought that a small brood-chamber is 

 much more preferable, even if we do have to go 

 to the trouble of making a special honey- 

 board to keep the queen and pollen out of the 

 sections. 



WHY bees store POLLEN. 



Question. — Why is it that some colonies store 

 more pollen than others? I found one or two 

 colonies in midsummer that had their combs 

 half full of pollen, while the others did not 

 seem to have such an abundance. 



Answer. — Pollen accumulates in the combs 

 only as brood-rearing is not carried on rapidly 

 enough to consume it as fast as it is brought in. 

 For this reason a queenless colony will often 

 have its combs half filled with pollen, while 

 one by its side having a prolific queen will have 

 hardly any in its combs. During the latter 

 part of the season, more or less pollen is gener- 

 ally stored; for at this time the rearing of 

 brood Is drawing to a close, and nature has so 

 ordained that the bees should have some pollen 

 in early spring before they can get any from 

 the fields; but the prolificness of the queen has 

 more to do with it than any thing else. 



POLLEN A BEE-FOOD. 



Question. — Is not pollen a bee-food? Why I 

 ask this is, I have a neighbor keeping bees who 

 says that the bees never eat pollen; but I think 

 he is mistaken. 



Ansiver. — Pollen, or bee-bread, is not a food 

 for the mature bee to any great extent, but it is 

 used largely in compounding the chyme, which 

 is fed to the larva, or young bee, while in the 

 larval state; hence when the bees are breeding 

 largely, as in June, large quantities of pollen 

 are consumed. Pollen, honey, and water are 

 taken into the stomach of the nurse-bee, and, by 

 a process of partial digestion or secretion, form- 

 ed into milk or chyme, which is the only food of 

 the immature bee: and if from any reason the 

 supply of honey entirely gives out at such times 

 of prolific brood-rearing, the larvie are sucked 

 dry by the mature bees so they (the bees) need 

 not perish; and if the famine still continues, 

 the nurse-bees feed this chyme to the mature 



