to altogether prevent any outside 

 gathering of it. How, then, can pollen 

 or its substitute be given within the 

 hive ? 



In the natural way bees collect the 

 pollen on the breast, and transfer it by 

 the metatarsal brushes to the pollen 

 pockets on the tibiae ; but to accomplish 

 this, as may be seen by watching a bee 

 over a flower, two of the three pairs of 

 legs are required, and since the bee 

 cannot stand on the remaining pair this 

 packing is of necessity effected on the 

 wing. I, in order to meet this require- 

 ment, placed a small tray of pea flour 

 on the top of the hive, and added a 

 small covered flight chamber, so that 

 the bees coming from the top opening 

 might have room for the hovering flight 

 while packing. This was partially suc- 

 cessful, but had this drawback — that 

 the warm air of the brood-nest was 

 leaking freely away into the chamber 

 above. It now occurred to me that 

 bees, when natural pollen is stored, 

 place over it a layer of honey, and then 

 wax seal it. After extracting the top 

 of the stored pollen, saturated with 

 honey, is constantly seen. Can it be 

 wrong, therefore, to place the pea flour 

 mixed with honey or its equivalent at 

 once in the cell, and so save the bees all 

 the exposure, labor of gathering, and 

 storing it ? 



I now mixed some pea flour with 

 syrup, containing the small quantity of 

 salicylic acid 1 have previously recom- 

 mended, into a paste, and, removing a 

 comb, applied it with a flat knife, as 

 boys at school sometimes apply butter 

 to bread to till up the holes. About 3 

 ozs of pea flour were soon put into the 

 cells and the comb returned. Two 

 hours after, upon removing the comb, to 

 my intense delight, the bees had sucked 

 out the excess of syrup, and had packed 

 my pea flour down in the most beauti- 

 fully regular manner, as though it had 

 been pollen gathered in the natural 

 way. The problem was now solved. 

 What with much labor, and probably 

 much loss, could only have been accom- 

 plished by the efforts of hundreds of 

 bees had been done through my help by 

 a few bees with comparatively no 

 exhaustion, and actually no exposure. 

 The next day the greater part of this 

 pollen had been consumed, while the 

 dry starved appearance of the brood, 

 well-known to those who have over- 

 swarmed artificially, had passed away. 

 Giving doses of pollen as needed, the 

 breeding became rapid, and that hive 

 has now not only a very large quantity 

 of brood, but comb building has 

 again commenced. 



On the 8th inst. I put \% lbs. of bees 



taken from 5 straw hives into an empty 

 one and fed freely, and on Saturday the 

 11th I examined it. Comb had pro- 

 gressed well, and eggs were laid. As I 

 removed a comb and pasted my pea 

 flour mixture into it, I felt some com- 

 punction in marring its spotless purity. 

 On Monday the 13th another examina- 

 tion was made, when I expected to find 

 the pollen packed, as in the other hive 

 under experiment ; but. to my astonish- 

 ment, in the 48 hours almost the whole 

 of it (about 3 ozs.) had been consumed. 

 There was yet no hatched eggs that I 

 could find. The bees then, under the 

 labor of comb building, needed the 

 nitrogenous food to make good the wear 

 of tissue involved. The microscope 

 showed pollen granules in the stomachs 

 of wax-workers, which gather naturally. 

 These bees had made comb on sugar 

 only, but no doubt were growing in 

 some sort emaciated under the process, 

 and the pea flour supplied the place of 

 the pollen they would have consumed 

 whilst gathering their sweets had this 

 been done in the normal manner. 



What an absolute refutation this gives 

 to the notions of those who assert that 

 bees never consume pollen, a statement 

 which has no better base than a guess, 

 and which is utterly at variance with all 

 scientific theories of diets. This later 

 hive, worse off as the season is more 

 advanced than the one first named, is 

 going ahead splendidly, and is rearing 

 great breadths of brood, and is receiv- 

 ing its pollen as occasion requires. 



We see here a way of building up 

 bees almost without regard to the sea- 

 son, for not now can we give syrup, 

 which is but half a diet, but pollen like- 

 wise, without one wing being moved in 

 the chilly outside air. 



London, England. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Selecting a Location for an Apiary. 



WM. C. CASSON. 



One of the most important require- 

 ments for a successful apiary is location. 

 We may have the best hive in use, the 

 best race of bees known for gathering 

 honey, the apiarist may be well adapted 

 to the business, possessing all the knowl- 

 edge necessary for success, but with a 

 poor location it is still but a poor 

 business. 



Comparing it with other departments 

 of farming— what is the choicest dairy 

 of cows, the convenient dairy fixtures, 

 warm stables and a man adapted to the 

 work— without a rich pasture for sum- 

 mer, and good, sweet, rich meadow grass 

 for winter. 



