Apeil, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



241 



blossoms and carried home packed in pel- 

 lets on their rear legs. This pollen, or "bee 

 bread," as it is sometimes called, altho used 

 by the bees themselves, ia gathered especial- 

 ly for feeding the young larvae. 



Here and there, at the corners or edges of 

 the combs may be found drone cells which 

 are regular in shape and slightly larger than 

 the worker cells, there being about four ceils 

 to the inch. 



Toward the middle of some of tluj combs 

 will be found cells having light to dark- 

 brown and slightly convex cappir.gs made of 



Bees gnawing thru the cappings and emerging from 

 their cells. 



wax and fibrous material. Such cells contain 

 the sealed brood; whether drone or worker 

 may be determined by the size of the cells. 

 Near this sealed brood will also be found 

 unsealed brood, some cells containing tiny, 

 elongated eggs of about the same diameter as 

 a pin, others containing what appears to be 

 pearl white grubs closely curled up in the 

 cells. The latter are larvaj in various stages 

 of development. 



When given frames of foundation, t)ie bees 

 begin building comb and drawing out tlio 

 foundation, providing there is honey or sugar 

 syrup coming in. To produce each pound of 

 wax used in comb building, it is necessary 



for the bees to consume from 5 to 20 pounds 

 of honey. Tor this reason foundation should 

 never be given except when there ia either a 

 natural or an artificial flow, for otherwise it 

 will be gnawed by the bees and probably 

 ruined. 



After feeding on these incoming stores, a 

 secretion called wax issues from the wax 

 glands and hardens into white scales, which 

 may often be seen on the under side of the 

 bee 's abdomen. This wax is then transferred 

 to the mandibles where it is mixed until it 

 becomes pliable enough to use for comb 

 building. Altho the new combs are very 

 light in color, after several years of use in 

 brood rearing, they become dark, almost 

 black, from the thousands of bees continually 

 tramping over them and also because of the 

 many layers of cocoons which line the cell 

 walls. These cocoons so add to the toughness 

 of the combs that they make the old combs 

 even more valuable than new ones. 



In our irext lesson we shall discuss the dif- 

 ferent methods of obtaining bees and also 

 the ways of getting them into the new hives. 



Unsealed, partially sealed, and fully sealed Jioney. 

 which may he in either worker or drone cell. Capil- 

 lary attraction prevents the unsealed honey from 

 running out. 



l^odolpho Garcia, Matunzas. Cuba, styles himself a beginner; but ho has 200 colonies, and he socured 

 hii average crop per colony of 15 to 16 gallons of Iioney and (lirce pounds of wax. 



