1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



173 



amounts to 11.27 per cent of the whole, and the car- 

 bon In the albumen present amounts to 11.52 per 

 cent of the whole, or in all more than half as much 

 carbon as there is in an equal weight of sugar. The 

 other elements, nitrogen, sulphur, and phospho- 

 rus, produce some heat also. These facts show that, 

 for direct heat production, pollen is not an unim- 

 portant item in the larder of the hive. According 

 to the investigation of Erlynmeyer and Dr. von 

 Planta, the average total quantity of floating pol- 

 len in ten different samples of honey was only about 

 one part in 600 parts of honey. Regarding this. 

 Pastor Schoenfeld says, " It is quite clear that so ex- 

 ceedingly small a percentage of nitrogen is alto- 

 gether insufficient to maintain a colony in a normal 

 and healthy condition during the winter." 



I shall not now discuss the necessity for pollen to 

 repair the wear and tear of tissue in bees from the 

 time of fall feeding till the time for gathering pol- 

 len in the following spring, a period of, say, seven 

 months, during at least a portion of which time it is 

 impossible to keep them in a state of quiescence; 

 but I shall direct attention to two facts to which 

 other writers on food for wintering have not allud- 

 ed, as far as I recollect; namely, that, under any cir- 

 cumstances bees can not continue to digest sugar 

 syrup for any considerable length of time without 

 the aid of nitrogen, and that the oil contained in 

 pollen materially assists the digestion of both the 

 nitrogenous and carbo-hydrate food stuffs. In order 

 that the reader may judge as to the sufficiency of 

 my grounds for making these statements, I quote 

 as follows: 



Dr. Letheby says, " It is very probable that the 

 nitrogenous matters assist the assimilation of hy- 

 drocarbons. Fat serves important functions in the 

 process of digestion, assimilation, and nutrition. 

 The digestive power of fat is considerable."— [Lec- 

 tures on Pood, pages 71, 74.] 



Dr. Parkes says, " If the nitrogen be cut off from 

 the body, the various functions languish. This 

 does not at once occur, for every body contains a 

 store of nitrogen, but it is at length inevitable."— 

 [Practical Hygiene, vol. I., p. 204.] 



Dr. Wilson says, "The saccharine constituents 

 are largely concerned in carrying on the digestion 

 of nitrogenous substances."— [Handbook of Sanita- 

 ry Science.] 



Dr. Pavey says, " It may be inferred that nitro- 

 genous matter is required, not only for the forma- 

 tion of tissues, but liKewise for contributing, by the 

 promotion of the requisite change, to the utiliza- 

 tion of non-nitrogenous principles; and unless it ex- 

 ists in suitable amount in the fond, these principles 

 fail to pass to their proper destination. The presence 

 of fat in the food seems in some way to promote 

 the transformation of the carbo-hydrates. Fat ex- 

 erts a favorable influence over the assimilation of 

 nitrogenous matter."— [Treatise on Food and Diet- 

 etics, pages 278, 279.] 



Prof. Foster says, " When an animal is fed sim- 

 ply on non-nitrogenous food, death soon takes 

 place. The food rapidly ceases to be digested, and 

 starvation ensues." — [Text-book of Physiology, 

 page 570.] 



These quotations are hardly compatible with the 

 statement that " the consumption of nitrogen is the 

 cause of all the trouble." 



If practical proof of the truth of these statements 

 is required when applied to the case of the bees, it 

 js furnished in the experiepcp of Mr. Heddon, as 



given on page 270, Gleanings, 1885. His bees, from 

 which pollen had been excluded as far as possible, 

 died of starvation, notwithstanding the fact that 

 they were found to be full of undigested sugar syr- 

 up. In the light of the information furnished by 

 the physiologists quoted above, are we not justified 

 in attributing their defective digestion to the ab- 

 sence of nitrogen and oil, which a supply of pollen 

 would have furnished? Mr. Heddon found, then, 

 for the first time in a long experience, that bees 

 quite readily succumb to the effects of cold. When 

 the digestion of sugar languished and then ceased, 

 a failure in keeping up the normal temperature 

 should excite no surprise. The experience of Mr. 

 Demaree, given on page 788, vol. I., C. B. J., is an- 

 other case in point, showing that bees can not con- 

 tinue to digest syrup without pollen. 



In view of all the facts, I think it will be admit- 

 ted that Mr. Heddon is in error as regards the com- 

 position of honey, syrup, and pollen, their functions 

 in the process of digestion and assimilation, their 

 capacity for heat production, and the necessity for 

 a constant change of air in the hives. I submit, 

 therefore, that he is not in a position to be able to 

 say with confidence, "The whole matter of safe 

 wintering hinges on the food." All attempts to de- 

 fend the exclusion of pollen from the food of bees 

 in winter, on scientific grounds, have broken down, 

 and all experiments made to justify its exclusion, 

 by the success of practical results, have been either 

 so inconclusive that they are quite worthless as 

 proof, or they have proven the very contrary of what 

 it was supposed they would establish. I think it is 

 high time that Mr. Heddon should begin to see that 

 the old-fashioned food, honey and pollen, with sur- 

 roundings such as will keep the bees comfortable, 

 are, after all, the most reliable conditions for safe 

 wintering. S. Corneil. 



Lindsay, Ont., Can., Feb. 11, 1889. 



Friend C, you are doubtless right, or pret- 

 ty nearly right ; and I presume likely that 

 friend Heddon as well as myself has got 

 somewhat rusty on chemistry. You have 

 given us theory and science (and I believe 

 you are correct) enough to last us a good 

 long while. Mow, while I do not mean to 

 be disrespectful to science or theory either, I 

 want to say that I have wintered splendidly 

 when every thing was removed as closely as 

 I could remove it, except stores of sugar 

 syrup. In fact, we took their combs all 

 away, and gave them clean combs contain- 

 ing nothing but sugar syrup, and I never 

 saw bees winter better than they did. We 

 have done nearly the same thing, on a large 

 scale, since the time I have mentioned, and 

 there was no loss with as many as 200 colo- 

 nies. In this latter case, however, they had 

 their own combs ; in the former experiment 

 alluded to they did not commence brood - 

 rearing, or at least did not succeed in rear- 

 ing brood, until they got pollen ; and in re- 

 gard to ventilation, I feel sure either that 

 bees do not need as much as you estimate, 

 or that more air gets through ordinary hives 

 and ordinary cellars than we are aware of. 

 I have repeatedly seen bees winter beauti- 

 fully in ordinary cellars that seemed to be 

 remarkably close and tight, where no pro- 

 vision had been made for ventilation at all ; 

 and with bees buried in the ground, or put 

 in caves, as Doolittle mentions, they not 



