60 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



When the bee arrives at the hive she selects, usu- 

 ally, a worker-cell and, backing up to it, thrusts in 

 her legs and scrapes off the pollen by a dexterous 

 movement like that made by a cook scraping dough 

 off her hands. The bee bringing the pollen con- 

 siders her duty done in furnishing the flour, and 

 leaves the bread-making to one of her younger sis- 

 ters, who is devoting the day to domestic duties. 

 Needless to say, bee-bread is unleavened ; it is made 

 by the very simple process of packing the pollen 

 firmly into the cell, the utensil employed being the 

 head of the bread-maker, which she uses cheerfully 

 as a mallet for this purpose. 



Bee-bread is necessary as a food for young bees 

 and admirably supplements honey in its composition, 

 being rich in albumenoids and nitrogen. To our 

 taste it is rather bitter and disagreeable, as those of 

 us can attest who ate comb-honey from the hives of 

 old, before movable frames and supers were generally 

 used. However, under the new regime, it is rarely 

 placed in the sections of the supers, but sensibly 

 stored in the brood-combs, near where it is used, 

 and thus seldom appears upon the table. 



THE PROPOLIS, OR BEE-GLUE 



Though bees are most successful manufacturing 

 chemists, yet they are not above using ready-made 

 substances if they find such to their liking. Thus, 

 propolis is not produced by bees, but is gathered by 

 them from various sources, and is used as a cement 

 and a varnish. Certain trees and smaller plants 



