1901 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



237 



" If there is no machine for removing it, is 

 there not some other way of getting rid of it ? " 



"Some advise making combs containing 

 much pollen into wax, and then have the wax 

 worked into comb foundation, putting the 

 same into the hives for the bees to draw out 

 into comb again ; but all such advice seems 

 to me to be a damage rather than a help." 



"Perhaps you do not have much pollen 

 here, and so do not know what it is to have 

 combs almost solid with pollen." 



" In this locality we get large quantities of 

 pollen, probably as much as is gathered in any 

 place in the United States ; yet I have never 

 melted up a comb on that account, neither did 

 I ever have any thrown out by the bees, as 

 others claim they have, unless said pollen had 

 become moldy." 



" When does your pollen come ? " 



" With me there are two different periods 

 that bees store very much more pollen than is 

 worked up by the nurse-bees into chyle for 

 the young brood. One is during the bloom 

 of the hard maple, and the other during white- 

 clover bloom. I have had combs of pollen 

 gathered during the yield from hard maple, 

 which weighed as high as four pounds." 



" That is like some I have. And if there is 

 no machine to take it out of the cells, and you 

 do not wish to melt the combs, how do you 

 get rid of it?" 



" At such times as this I work as follows : 

 Whenever the bees gather so much as to crowd 

 the queen I take it away for the time being, 

 substituting empty combs for those taken 

 away. 



" If there come a few rainy or windy days 

 at this time, I find that this pollen is all ex- 

 hausted, so that the cells are once more empty 

 or filled with eggs, as it takes large quantities 

 of food for the numerous brood at this season 

 of the year." 



" But where you take away such combs full 

 of pollen, what do you do with it ? That is 

 what has puzzled me, for it soon gets wormy." 



" After apple-bloom there is little for the 

 bees to work on for some two or three weeks, 

 and the surplus pollen is all soon used up and 

 more needed, when I set back that which was 

 removed, and thus brood-rearing is kept up 

 more effectually than by feeding syrup, honey, 

 or any of the many plans for stimulative feed- 

 ing, and costs very much less by way of out- 

 lay in either cash or labor. I consider plenty 

 of pollen in the combs during the period of 

 scarcity between apple and clover, or in any 

 other time of scarcity, to be of great advan- 

 tage." 



"Well, I had never thought that these 

 combs of pollen could be turned to advantage, 

 and I now see my mistake. But how about 

 that which comes from clover? " 



" The pollen gathered during white-clover 

 bloom is treated differently from that gather- 

 ed early. That gathered early rarely ever has 

 honey placed on top of it, while that from 

 clover is placed in the cells till they are near- 

 ly three fourths full, when the remaining por- 

 tion of the cell is filled with honey and sealed 

 over so as to preserve it against a time of need 

 the next spring, or some future time. During 



summer, as I find combs containing much 

 pollen in this preserved state, they are hung 

 away in my room for storing combs, and sul- 

 phured as occasion may require, to kill the 

 larvae of the wax-moth, which are sure to in- 

 jure such combs nmch if not thus treated." 



" If this pollen is covered with honey, and 

 the cells sealed over, as you state, how do you 

 tell them from combs of solid honey ? " 



" Combs containing pollen under honey are 

 readily distinguished from those without by 

 holding them up before a strong light and 

 looking through them, especially if the combs 

 are somewhat new. Then combs containing 

 pollen of any amount are not so heavy ac- 

 cording to their appearance as those solid 

 with honey. Taking the two together I have 

 no trouble in ascertaining those containing 

 enough pollen to bother with." 



"What do you do with these combs after 

 storing them away ? " 



" When spring opens I again take the op- 

 portunity of placing such combs on hand, 

 which contain pollen under honey, near the 

 brood, and in doing so break the capping to 

 the cells where they come next to the brood, 

 by passing a knife flatwise over them, and 

 find that there is nothing which will stimulate 

 very early brood-rearing equal to this. This 

 answers a very much better purpose to stimu- 

 late brood-rearing at this time of the year 

 than the feeding of rye or oat meal, as some 

 recommend. In this way all pollen is used 

 up to far better advantage than by melting up 

 the combs or by inventing a machine to re- 

 move it from the combs." 



"That looks reasonable, and I have quite 

 changed my views in this matter." 



" The successful apiarist is the one who al- 

 ways studies hard to turn every thing that 

 comes along so it will forward his pursuit, ei- 

 ther directly or indirectly. Let us look wise- 

 ly into all of the little matters which come 

 along, and then we shall prosper." 



A HOUSE-APIARY AND WORK-SHOP COMBIN- 

 ED ; QUESTIONS FOR GI,EANINGS. 



Would it be practicable to put up a building 

 that would accommodate 100 colonies of bees 

 for summer and winter, and also use one end 

 for a honey-house? The writer's idea was to 

 put up a building, say 65 feet long and 10 feet 

 wide, and use 15 feet at one end as a honey- 

 room, and have the other 50 feet used for the 

 bees two tiers high on each side, and the build- 

 ing double-walled, and packed with sawdust 

 with an entrance through the side for each 

 hive. 



The advantages of such a building, if prac- 

 ticable, would be numerous, such as shade for 

 bees and apiarist in summer ; practically no 

 walking or carrying honey, no packing and 



