136 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



How the bees eat pollen. 

 Somewhat different is the function, if 

 the bees etit pollen. The pollen conies 

 into the honey-stomach throuiili the outer 

 mouth and floats hei-e in a fluid. This 

 fluid is honey and ivater. The stomach- 

 mouth can take those pollen grains only 

 which float quite near the openinjrp. But 

 here are some liairs; as soon as a pollen 

 grain touches these liairs the four lips are 

 opened and so the pollen-grain is caught; 

 the same cannot go back into the honey- 

 stomach when the mouth is opened again, 

 because other hairs hold it back. If a few 

 pollen grains only are in the lioney-stom- 

 ach, the function is a little ditt'erent, the 

 honey-stomach is contiacted and this is 

 done by pushes; hereby the piece m p 

 moves diiferently sidewise and so the pol- 

 leu-graius can be caught. 



Here comes the turned-up part n o in 

 function. If the honey-stomach is con- 

 tracted, it moves in the direction to the 

 head of the bee, and the part n o slides 

 out of the true stomach. More important 

 is this, if the bee vomits tlie honey, wiien 

 the honey-stomach is very quickly moved 

 against the head; -this would be danger- 

 ous for the flne tube without the turned- 

 up part. Around the part m n are muscles 

 wiiicli save the organ from moving too 

 far from the true stomach and pull the 

 lioney -stomach back after the contraction 

 is flnished. 



We have further to explain for what 

 purpose the t)ees eat pollen. It is known 

 that larvas, as well as bees, need a certain 

 amount of nitrogenous food like other 

 animals. Honey contains a very small 

 amount of nitrogen (about 0.17 in 100 

 parts), so we have pollen only for this 

 purpose. 



In the first three months of the winter, 

 as long as the bees are very quiet and 

 their vitality is lowered, the bees eat very 

 little honey and they nniy need no pollen 

 at all; more than this, they may, to their 

 advantage, spontaneously dispense with 

 pollen. But as soon as they become un- 

 easy and desire to breed, they need some 

 pollen. It is impossil)le at all to prepare 

 the jelly for larvae without pollen (more 

 about this later). 



That bees need pollen is proved by the 

 energy in carrying pollen in early spring 

 and tlie great amount of pollen consumed 

 at this time, when l)reeding goes on rap- 

 idly. This breeding is stopped when from 

 unfavorable weather they cease bringing 

 in pollen for some time, and, flnall}', dis- 

 ease and death of the nurse-bees are the 

 result, if they are forced to breed for 

 some time without pollen, as many exper- 

 iments have proved. 

 Further, the bees need pollen to keep 



their own body healthy and to preserve 

 the vitality. It is very difficult to prove 

 by experiment how long worker-bees can 

 live without albuminous food, because we 

 cannot keep them confined as long. 



Queens and drones do not eat pollen, 

 but honey only. To get the necessary 

 albuminous food, they are fed with jelly 

 or chyle of the workei-l)ees. To find out 

 liow long drones can live on lioney only, 

 Sclioenfeld experimented in the following 

 manner : 



Two combs, each one containing 200-. 

 300 grammes of freshly gathered honey, 

 were each surroiindt.'d by a wire screen, 

 so that drones could move' on the combs. 

 One of the combs received a siiiiile wire- 

 screen, the other was surrounded by a sec- 

 ond wire-screen, so the drones could not 

 have been ffd l)y the outside bees. 



In a cold, rainy week 200 diones were 

 caught and to each of the combs 100 

 drones were introduced. These combs 

 were hung in the centre of the brood-nest. 

 On the evening of the fourth day the 

 drones in the double screen were very 

 weak. On the fifth day all the drones 

 were dead but four. The drones in the 

 other screen were as lively as ever and 

 flew away when a few days later they 

 were released. 



Both were in the same condition ; the 

 want of albuminous food only could be 

 fatal to these poor fellows. Worker-bees 

 would surely live longer; but, neverthe- 

 less, this experiment is a proof of how 

 necessary the pollen food is for the bees. 



Selma, Texas. 



Fixing Comb Foundation. 



I observe that the question of founda- 

 tion fixing has been more or less in the 

 minds of various correspondents to sev- 

 eral of the American bee-papers, so I 

 thought a description of some of the meth- 

 ods in general use on our side might be of 

 interest to your leaders. Descriptions of 

 the various methods themselves would 

 necessarily be ponderous to be intelligil)le, 

 so I have asked for and gained tlie per- 

 mission of Messrs. Abbott, Blow and 

 Neighbour for the use of the cuts used by 

 them in their trade catalogues, in tlie hope 

 that my work in writing, and your readers' 

 labour in reading, might be lessened 

 thereby. 



In the early days of Carr-frame hives 

 we used to make strips of wax-guide on 

 the frames; afterwards, when foundations 

 became a success, we used to fasten strips 

 of foundation, and often whole sheets, 



