264 Beekeeping 



on their legs, just as they do pollen, and will carry it to the 

 hive. There are also reports of coal dust being carried in 

 this way. After observing bees carry in rye flour from a 

 neighboring mill, Dzierzon put some in the apiary where the 

 bees could get it readily and they carried it in eagerly. It is 

 still held by many beekeepers that bees should be given rye 

 flour or pea, oat or corn meal in the spring, these being 

 considered more suitable foods than wheat flour. These 

 substitutes are chemically not very similar to pollen, and 

 observations as to the effects of them on the development 

 of the brood are badly needed. In fact, it can scarcely be 

 said that we know that the giving of substitutes for pollen 

 is serviceable in brood-rearing, and one cannot but wonder 

 what Dzierzon's advice would have been if his apiary had 

 been near a coal mine. Because of the unusual things that 

 bees do, we are not justified in concluding that the giving 

 of substitutes for pollen is useless, however, and no harmful 

 results are recorded from the practice. It is a promising 

 field for study, for there is sometimes a scarcity of pollen just 

 when it is most needed. 



