1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1497 



BEES WITH MASSES OF POLLEN ON THEIR LEGS. 

 Note the bee in the lower right-hand corner, with two masses of pollen almost as large as its body. 



legs and the pollen masses, and the greater the 

 magnification used for the observation, the deep- 

 er becomes the wonder as to the whole process. 

 Bees cover themselves with pollen so that fre- 

 quently when they fly from bloom to bloom the 

 particles drop to the ground. Yet notwithstand- 

 ing this apparent haphazard gathering there is a 

 method in the process, since some of the pollen 

 is regarded as mere litter, while the rest is a de- 

 sirable load, for a certain definite amount is, by 

 a mysterious process, transferred to the place de- 

 signed for it on the flattened legs. 



One bright and beautiful day in May I notic- 

 ed that the bees were coming in with loads larger 

 than usual, and that these were not uniform in 

 color. There were various shades of yellow and 

 orange, and now and then a bee arrived with a 

 burden that was deep pink or even red. I im- 

 mediately got my collecting-bottle with a liberal 

 supply of chlo- 

 roform. With 

 bottle in one 

 hand and tweez- 

 ers in the other 

 I stood over the 

 open hive with 

 two or three 

 frames out. As 

 here and there I 

 saw a honey- 

 bee running 

 with a liberal 

 load, I picked 

 her up and put 

 her in the sleep- 

 bottle. The 

 chloroform im- 

 mediately quiet- 

 ed the captives 

 and prevented 

 them from dash- 

 ing about the 



bottle and shaking off the pollen masses. Then 

 I took the pile of bees and photographed it to 

 show that the masses were huge in comparison to 

 what one would suppose the bees could carry. In 

 some cases the two masses were almost as large 

 as the abdomen of the bee that was carrying them. 

 The photograph shows the location of the pack- 

 ing on the legs, but it is to be regretted that the 

 art of photography does not yet show color. The 

 pile as it lay before my camera was indeed beau- 

 tiful. I then removed some of the pollen mass- 

 es and scattered them along on the " optical 

 bench," placing a thimble so as to show the rela- 

 tive size, and took another photograph as is shown 

 herewith. So far as my observations extend, 

 there are never two colors of pollen in any one 

 mass. I took pains to crush or (with a needle) 

 to tease apart some of the masses, but I could not 

 find a single instance where there was more than 





MASSES OF POLLEN TAKEN FROM LEGS OF BEES. 

 These were photographed with a thimble to show the relative size. 



