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119 



THE RETURX llOmE. 



I see tlie hills nf home again. 



Again the bees are humming ; 

 Ana slowly down the scented lane, 

 With measured step in single train, 

 The cows at eve are coming. 



I wander down familiar ways, 



1 look for old-time laces ; 

 While memory paints again the days, 

 And strongly with her touch essays. 



To find the old-lime places. 



I see the house where first I Icnew, 



The summer's golden splendor : 

 Here first my happy fancies grew, 

 And drnamsthat fairyland was true, 

 And lite was sweet and tender. 



Strange faces meet me at the door, 



And stranger voices telling ; 

 And so, my dream of home is o'er, 

 And I shall find it never tnore. 

 In stranger countries dwelling. 



—Old Homestead. 



ml 



LARVAL FOOD. 



IVbat ig Used to Feed the Brood 

 of tbe Bees? 



Written for tlieAraerlcan Bee Journal 



BY L. STACHELHAUSEN. 



On page 582 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 1888, Query 572 asks for 

 the amount of honey used for brood- 

 rearing. The most of those who reply 

 say, "I do not know." Some guessed, 

 and guessed very high. So this seems 

 a question, which eveu veterans can- 

 not answer, Ijut we are not quite as 

 helpless. 



Von IManta analyzed the larval food. 

 The composition of itforwoi-ker larva;, 

 including the water it contains, is as 

 follows : 



Water 71.630 



NitrugeDOus matter 14.5:28 



Fat 1.M41 



Glycose 7.8« 



Uttier parts 4.U57 



We see that nitrogenous matter is 

 the most important part of this food, 

 and this comes, without douljt, from 

 the pollen. 



Von Planta found in dried pollen of 

 the hazel the following : 



Water.... 4.98 



NitroKenous matter 3 1 .63 



Asli 4."I 



Cane sugar 14.70 



Starch 5.26 



Other matter 40.42 



We can easily calculate that to 100 

 parts of larval food for workers, 



1452 8 

 31.63 



which equals 45.9 parts of di-y pollen, 

 is used bj' the bees to get plont}' of the 

 nitrogenous matter. These 45.9 parts 

 of pollen contain 



45. 9X14.7 



1(K) 



which (equals 6.75 parts of cane-sugar, 

 and they are changed to F. 1 glycose 



ill the stomach of tlie nurse-bee. The 

 starch of the pollen is likewise changed 

 to sugar. So we see that the pollen 

 contains more sugar than is necessary 

 to prepare tlie larval food. 



These analyses make it quite certain 

 that the larval foc)il for workers is pre- 

 pared from pollen and water only, and 

 no honey at all is used for this purpose. 



It may be possible, that after the 

 fourth day the worker larvte receive a 

 food which contains more sugar, but 

 Von Planta says this is not probable. 



We have observed, that in early 

 spring, if no honey can be gatheretl 

 by the bees, and breeding is going on 

 rapidly, a great amount of honey is 

 consumed by the bees. This seems 

 quite contrary to the above facts. But 

 we know that the bees consume some 

 honey to secure the necessary high 

 temperature. If bees do not breed, 

 the cluster is quite contracted, and it 

 will take less fuel to warm this small 

 cluster ; but if in the spring the cluster 

 is e.xpanded as much as possible, to 

 get room for the brood, the amount of 

 fuel needed is very great, and we can 

 observe this loy the rapid decrease of 

 the honey in the hive. 



Again in summer, when the outside 

 temperature is neai'ly as high as neces- 

 sary for the brood, the bees need no 

 fuel. This explains why a strong col- 

 ony needs less houey, comparatively, 

 than a weaker one. Surely the bees 

 will consume some honey in summer, 

 too, but now thej' need it to change it 

 to power, which moves their wings, 

 etc. It seems veiy probable that pol- 

 len is the food for the bees, which 

 builds up the body, while honey is the 

 fuel, which warms and moves it. 



If we find that pollen only is used 

 to feed the larvifi, we may ask, what 

 amount of pollen is necessary for this 

 purpose ? I do not know this, but I 

 have some reasons to believe that 

 surely not more than one pound of 

 pollen is used to feed 8,000 larva; — very 

 probably less. 



This matter is of great practical im- 

 portance. At first we see that a very 

 warm quarter in the spring will save 

 some honey, and even more than in 

 the winter. Second, that by caging 

 the queen in summer, to avoid breed- 

 ing, the surplus honey cannot be in- 

 creased, and this idea has to be aban- 

 doned — the sooner the better. 



It is said, tliat it is no difference, if 

 pollen is used for the brood, or honej- — 

 both liave to be gathered by the bees, 

 and if they need no pollen they could 

 gather some honey instead. But this 

 is not true, because the bees fill up the 

 brood-chamber with pollen for future 

 use, if no brood is present — what every 

 bee-keeper surely will have observed. 



Some e.xperiments .show that more 

 honey is secured, if the queen is caged. 



or entirel}- removed for some time. I 

 do not doubt this, but it is ea.sily ex- 

 lilained, if we say that the bees used 

 tlie empty cells for storing lioney, 

 which in the other experimental hive 

 were occupied by the brood. Here 

 they had not enough cells for the 

 honey. If we always give to a strong 

 colony empty cells, we will see that 

 nothing is gained by caging the queen. 

 Tliis caging may be done with advan- 

 tage for the purpose of preventing 

 swarming. I will not discuss this here. 



Further, we see how important it is 

 that the bees have plenty of pollen 

 when brood is reared. Some experi- 

 ments prove tliat for a short time the 

 bees can rear brood without pollen. 

 They use some surrogates which they 

 find in old combs ; in this condition 

 the}' may use some honey too, but then 

 the larval food will be of other compo- 

 sition. The larva; may not die by this 

 diet, but surely we will rear a degen- 

 erated colony, and in many cases the 

 bees stop breeding entirely. ■ 



Selma, Tex., Jan. 10, 1889. 



WINTERING. 



Method of Packing the Hives 

 for Winter. 



Written J or the American Bee Journal 



BY WILLIAM STOLLEY. 



As usual, I winter my bees in a bee- 

 house, open to the east and southeast. 

 In my former eight years of bee-keep- 

 ing, I packed them in hay ; put lean- 

 ing boards over the entrances, and 

 covered all with hay, to the depth of 

 about 2 feet. This year I have some- 

 what changed my method of winter- 

 ing, notwithstanding the fact that I 

 have always wintered my bees remark- 

 ably well. 



I have changed all my hives into 

 double-walled, lined in between the 

 walls with heavy building-paper, and 

 J inch dead-air space between the 

 walls, all around the brood-chamber. 

 I do believe that this double wall is a 

 more etticient protection against the 

 cold, than hay 2 feet thick. 



Ten colonies I have packed and 

 covered with h.iy as usual ; but 20 col- 

 onies I have not packed on the outside, 

 nor covered the hives at all ; but I 

 have darkened the entrances by close- 

 fitting boards leaning against the 

 liives ; should I be correct in my pre- 

 sumption, then I will get rid of the 

 trouble of fussing with hay about the 

 apiary, and the danger of fire is much 

 lessened. 



Inside the hive my bees are con- 

 tracted and packed with the utmost 

 care. 



The sides (inside) between the 

 double wall and division-boards are 



