The Sources of Nectar and Pollen 365 



200 pounds for the bees, and there is rarely enough honey 

 from white clover to permit this. This indicates that the 

 beekeeper is debtor to the minor sources for much more 

 than he is accustomed to believe. 



Gathering of pollen. 



The amount of pollen consumed by a colony annually is 

 also considerable. Estimates of the averages in this phase 

 of bee feeding are not available, but there is, nevertheless, 

 some basis for judging the consumption. If during the 

 active season a colony becomes queenless and has no brood 

 to feed, the stores of pollen increase rapidly and several 

 combs are often filled in a short time. It can scarcely be 

 claimed that queenless bees gather more pollen than normal 

 ones and, in fact, it is sometimes stated that the gathering 

 is then reduced, so that it is safe to conclude that had brood 

 been present these extra stores of pollen would have been 

 consumed almost as fast as gathered. It must be true, 

 therefore, that a colony uses many frames of pollen in a 

 season, so that pollen sources are important to the beekeeper. 

 In gathering pollen a bee is less uniformly beneficial to 

 plants than when gathering nectar. They may cross-polli- 

 nate the flowers when so engaged but they are, at the same 

 time, appropriating a part of the pollen on which fertiliza- 

 tion depends. In some species of plants, an abundance of 

 pollen seems to serve as an attractive agent, just as does 

 nectar in those species provided with nectaries. 



Value of bees in cross-pollination. 



In discussing the plants from which bees gather nectar, 

 further mention should be made of the beneficial results 

 which arise from the visits of bees to the flowers of certain 

 fruits. As was explained earlier in this chapter, nectar is 

 serviceable to the plant in acting as an attraction to insect 

 visitors, which act as agents in cross-pollination. Because 

 of the mutual adaptations of the insects and plants, they 

 often become mutually indispensable. Some varieties of 



