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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1200 to 1600 colonies. There is a distinctly 

 Western and a professional flavor in the 

 new publication, and the first issue gives 

 evidence that it will indeed fill a " long-felt 

 want." The articles are by a number of 

 prominent beekeepers — men well known 

 through the bee-journals ; and, besides, there 

 are contributors who count their colonies 

 by the thousand. 



We are glad that its promotors feel that 

 it is not a " competitor." This is a broad, 

 broad world, and a big, big country. Cali- 

 fornia is a great deal larger than some 

 countries, and the second largest State in 

 the Union. We see no reason why the bee- 

 keepers of that State should not be able to 

 maintain a journal that will be a credit to 

 them as well as a help. It will build up the 

 industry, and so far from being a compet- 

 itor it will be an aid to all bee journals. 



It will be of immense worth in securing 

 a foul-l)rood law that will mean something 

 in California. There is much more it can 

 and will do for not only the Association 

 but for the general advancement of bee- 

 keeping within the State and out of it. 

 Gleanings is glad to welcome it. 



THE BEHAVIOR OF THE HONEYBEE IN POLLEN 

 COLLECTING. 



In our issue for March 1, page 139, we 

 gave a brief review of a bulletin from the 

 Bureau of Entomology, No. 161, by Dr. 

 D. B. Casteel, on the subject of the manip- 

 ulation of the wax scales of the honeybee. 

 This time we have the pleasure of referring 

 to another bulletin by the same author, en- 

 titled " The Behavior of the Honeybee in 

 Pollen Collecting." Tliis, like the other, is 

 extremely interesting, because it opens up 

 a field hitherto unexplored by any one ex- 

 cept F. L. Sladen, now Assistant Entomol- 

 ogist at Ottawa, Canada. Much has been 

 wiitten on the value of the honeybee in 

 pollinating fruit-blossoms, clovers, and 

 buckwheat; but the intricate process by 

 which the bee prepares this pollen and de- 

 posits it in its pollen-basket, if we are 

 correct, has not been accurately described 

 until Sladen and Casteel gave it to the pub- 

 lic. 



The matter of how the bee takes its pol- 

 len from the blossom and stores it in its 

 pollen-baskets, from a scientific point of 

 view, at least is exceedingly intei-esting; 

 and it has its practical side because it helps 

 to prove that bees perform an almost in- 

 dispensable service in pollinating blossoms. 

 If any one has ever doubted this proposi- 

 tion he could doubt no longer after seeing 

 how elaborate and perfect are the appli- 

 ances, the working tools, so to speak, in pos- 



session of our conmaon honeybees as well as 

 bumblebees, for gathering and storing pol- 

 len. That is to say, if the bee is perfectly 

 equipiDed for doing this work it certainly 

 must do it. 



Very few people have had the time and 

 patience to follow the intricate process of 

 the bees in pollen-gathering from start to 

 finish. In our younger days we tried to 

 discover just how the bees did it ; but the 

 l^erf ormance was so rapid that nothing short 

 of an instantaneous photograph could have 

 caught it. In this connection it should be 

 stated that Dr. Casteel had, of course, all 

 the modern appliances that the government 

 could furnish to aid him in this investiga- 

 tion, and he used them. He called in the 

 services of an expert chemist from the 

 Bureau of Chemistry to determine the na- 

 ture of the liquid that holds the pollen to- 

 gether; he consulted all the works that bore 

 in the least on the subject; but apparently 

 Ml'. Sladen was the only man who came 

 anywhere near telling exactly how pollen 

 is put into the -pollen-baskets. 



The bee's working- tools consist of spines 

 and hairs on its legs; of a long hairy 

 tongue, of mandibles, and fuzz, or hair, on 

 the body, and of pollen-baskets which, so 

 far from being a basket — well, it does not 

 look like any thing except a bee's hind leg. 

 The average person, if he will examine it 

 carefully with a microscoiJe, will conclude 

 that the i^ollen-basket is the most unlikely 

 place in which to store a lump of bee-bread ; 

 but it stores it in great big chunks just the 

 same. 



The manner in which the bee gathers 

 pollen varies according to the flowers on 

 which it is working. Sometimes the dust 

 is collected on the hairs of the body as well 

 as on all the legs, antennae, and head. At 

 otiier times, only the fore legs, where the 

 flowers are very small, in connection with 

 the tongue, seem to be concerned in the 

 process. On the fore legs is a very inter- 

 esting device called the antennge-cleaner, 

 which is used for removing pollen from the 

 antennae. On the middle legs there is a 

 peculiar kind of spur that is used for kick- 

 ing pollen out of the baskets on arrival at 

 the combs. On the hind legs are pollen- 

 combs, pollen-baskets, a sort of pincers or 

 squeezers, consisting of a pecten, and auri- 

 cle. These devices all come into play at 

 the proper instant, as we shall see. In 

 some cases the bees fairly wallow in the 

 pollen dust of the large flowers. On tak- 

 ing wing they proceed to clean themselves 

 llu'ough the agency of the special tools pro- 

 vided by the legs, consisting of hairs, pol- 

 len-combs, antennae, claws, all of which. 



