13l> 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



April 



excess, I presume pure candy would be better for 

 them. In my Oxford home, I have always found it 

 a scarce article. 



I send you for publication, a contribution to the 

 London Journal of Horticulture, by an English bee- 

 keeper residing' in Algiers, who has been experi- 

 menting this last winter, in the same line with Mr. 

 Raitt and myself, but under much more favorable 

 circumstances. 



By referring to Blodget's Climatology, I found that 

 in Algiers the mean temperature for Dec. is 55°, 1, 

 Jan. 52°, 9 , Feb. 54°, 8 ; mean of the three winter 

 months, 54°, 3 . Mean of these months in New Or- 

 leans, 56°, 5 . The mean of the three spring months 

 in Washington and Cincinnati is the same as that of 

 the winter months in Algiers. It will also be seen 

 that the winter months in Algiers vary but little, 

 and therefore are much more favorable to bees 

 than our climate, even in spring. 



Oxford, O. i-.. L. Langstroth. 



NITROGENOUS DIET FOR BEES. 



Now that spring feeding will shortly commence, 

 what to feed— syrup, candy, honey, the various 

 kinds of flour, &c.— will be the anxious thought of 

 many. After the severe winter ordeal that British 

 bees have gone through, my experience thus early 

 in the year of a course of nitrogenous diet may be 

 useful to your readers. 



"Keep your stocks strong" is a cardinal principle 

 in bee-keeping; but suppose that from any cause 

 your stocks have dwindled to very weak ones. Hav- 

 ing those weak stocks, but healthy, and queens of 

 known value, what would you do? Buy up stocks 

 to fortify them with? Of fifty stocks by uniting 

 make twenty-live? No; that has not been my plan. 

 In the first place you may not easily find colonies 

 for sale, and price may be an obstacle. In the sec- 

 ond place, having fifty stocks you want to meet the 

 harvest with that number if possible. So we come 

 back to the only solution of the question -viz., care- 

 ful feeding-up. 



"What new nostrum now?" 1 imagine I hear your 

 readers exclaim, seeing we have lately been reading 

 of Mr. Raitt and his bannock soaked in honey, and 

 not long ago I saw a description of a garden plot of 

 gigantic paper crocuses constantly supplied with 

 artificial pollen by the careful bee-master. 



Well, my nostrums are milk food and egg food, 

 with a condiment to assist digestion; and my experi- 

 ence is that of December, 1878, January, and part of 

 February of this year. 



I wanted to make my stocks strong, and that 

 quickly, so 1 read up the subject of feeding and pon- 

 dered it over, coming at last to the conclusion that 

 it was that kind of food which in a small compass 

 contained the most highly essential ingredients for 

 forming animal tissue that ought to be given. 



Whether pollen forms the slices of toast a bee 

 takes with his coffee of a morning or not I do not 

 know; but I do know that vast quantities of pollen 

 go into the hive if the weather is favorable and a 

 supply at hand. I believe it goes in to feed both 

 young and old bees from one simple consideration, 

 that in the pollen is found that which is necessary 

 for the formation and maintenance of all mus- 

 cular tissue. I refer to nitrogen. 



Water 12-74 



Ash 272 



Albuminous 21 75 



Sugar 26-60 



Artificial nitrogenous organic sub- 

 stances 36-59 



100-00 



Here we find albumen and nitrogen predomin- 

 ating. 



A French authority writes thus: "We distinguish 

 in pollen— 



"First, the waxy matter which holds the grains to- 

 gether; 



"Second, the matter which forms the walls of 

 those grains; 



"Third, the matter contained in those grains. 



"First and second contain only carbon, hydrogen 

 and oxygen; but the third when analysed gives— car- 

 bon, 052; hydrogen, 07; nitrogen, 0*11; oxygen, 0.30." 

 My authority goes on to say it is these nitrogenous 

 parts of the pollen that are the nutritive portion for 

 the bees, and the most important to consider. 



This interior portion of the grains of pollen is the 

 only part which contains nitrogen, that body indis- 



pensable to the nourishment of larva 3 and bees. 



Now we know that no muscular tissue can grow 

 without albumen which contains nitrogen, and that 

 certain articles of food are richer in nitrogenous 

 compounds than others; and we find in milk and 

 eggs two notable examples. 



In milk we have all classes of simple alimentary 

 substances together, it being composed of water, 

 compounds of chlorine salts, caseine. fat, and sugar, 

 whilst the egg contains six of the alimentary prin- 

 ciples— vis, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sul- 

 phur, and phosphorus, all easily soluble and assimi- 

 lable. 



All concentrated foods are difficult of digestion 

 and so we supply a condiment to assist digestion in 

 the shape of common salt placed in their drinking 

 troughs. 



Having, therefore, decided upon articles of food, 

 I have tried them,and with such a measure of suc- 

 cess that I hope my experience thus early in 1879 

 may be of use to induce others to follow on the 

 dietary and report results. 



The milk food I prepare thus: It is first boiled 

 soon after being milked, the clot removed, and then 

 if sugar be used to sweeten it a pound of sugar is 

 dissolved in a quart of milk. If honey be used the 

 milk must become cold before the honey (a pound 

 to a quart) is added, and must not be warmed again. 



Boiling prevents souring; and as skimmed milk is 

 most easily digested, the clot which is caseine is re- 

 moved. 



In the milk of asses we find a poverty of fatty 

 matters and an abundance of sugar. Those who keep 

 these animals will, I hope, take the hint, and feed 

 their bees with their milk, letting us know the result. 



[Some of your readers who are of the doubting 

 kind, and others who are fond of ajoke, will perhaps 

 say that all milk fed to bees, come from where it 

 will, can be no other thanthe milk of asses.— L. L. L.] 



The egg food I prepare thus: When a sufficient 

 number of eggs have been broken into a basin they 

 are well whisked, and honey added in the proportion 

 of double weight of honey to a given weight of egg 

 substance. To eggs I have likewise added a sugar 

 syrup made of 7 lbs. of sugar to 4 lbs. of water. 



This milk and egg food I give at night in little 

 tin trays either placed inside the hive or outside on 

 the doorsteps, tne quantity being regulated to the 

 size of the stock. The milk food I give every night, 

 and can see no ill effect. The egg food I give for 

 two nights, and allow the third to pass mimus food. 



At each feed I give what I consider adapted to 

 the strength of the colony. As the hive grows in 

 strength so the quantity will have to be increased. 



If I notice that they are storing it away too rapidly 

 I slightly diminish the supply. This refers to milk 

 diet, bu t with egg food I am careful to give only 

 what I feel sure will be consumed in the night. If 

 1 find any left in the trays next day I remove it and 

 let another hive finish it at once. 



The results are simply these; by the abovemeans 

 you can start the queen' laying at any moment, and 

 as fast as the bees hatch out strong enough to cover 

 the brood every cell of a fresh frame of empty 

 comb you insert will be found to contain a freshly 

 laid egg. 



1 have one hive now fed on milk only. Six weeks 

 ago it contained simply a queen and a handful of 

 bees. They now cover four frames (Woodbury size), 

 having built out theircomb from Raitt's foundation, 

 and are now busily engaged on a fifth. One notice- 

 able fact is that whereas those particular bees were 

 weak and puny, never showing fight, the present 

 generation are large strongly developed bees. 



Let us consider the enormous waste of muscuiar 

 tissue per diem in every hard-working bee; and re- 

 membering that sugar in any form, being devoid of 

 nitrogen, is contributing in no degree to the suste- 

 nance oft hat muscular tissue, I think that we can on- 

 ly come to one conclusion, and that is that bees do 

 eat pollen.— Arthur Todd, Algoia. 



I have no doubt but that the milk and 

 eggs diet will give excellent results, but it 

 is a deal more trouble than the flour candy, 

 and I can hardly think has any decided ad- 

 vantage. If I am correct, the same facts 

 were given in the Bienen Zeitung, some time 

 ago. One of our German correspondents 

 A. Gottman, No. 1, Bertram st., Brunswick, 

 Ger.. sent us a translation of the article, but 

 we did not And room for it. 



