752 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



VMJUMI^iliiii 



Digesting Food and Storing It 

 for Future Use. 



Query 875.— Is there any other animal or 

 insect except the honey-bee that digests its 

 food, and stores it for future use after it is 

 digested 7— P. W. 



Yes. — Will M. Baknum. 

 Yes. — Mks. J. N Heater. 

 I don't know. — E. France. 



Please ask me something I know. — J. 

 M. Hambaugh. 



No ; and further, the bees do no such 

 thing. — G. W. Demaree. 



I don't think of any unless it is the 

 bumble-bee.— S. I. Freeborn. 



I know of none, and do not except 

 the honey-bee. — Jas. A. Stone. 



I'm only a bee-keeper, not a naturalist 

 or entomologist. — C. C. Miller. 



I do not know whether the bee digests 

 its food or not. — Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Some other bees do it. I think some 

 birds do something akin to it. — A. J. 

 Cook. 



The honey-bee does not do it. Honey 

 has never been "digested." — Emerson 

 T. Abbott. 



Ask Prof. Cook. I do not know any- 

 thing about this " digested matter." — G. 

 M. Doolittle. 



Is P. W. a mistake for W. D. ? See 

 Query 874. I'll resign in favor of Prof. 

 Cook.— R. L. Taylor. 



Look at Dr. Miller's answer. I dislike 

 to say "I don't know," for he might 

 accuse me of plagiarism. — A. B. Mason. 



I am not aware that any animal, not 

 excepting the honey-bee, does digest its 

 food, and then stores for future use. — 

 J. P. H. Brown. 



Bees only partially digest their food 

 before storing it, according to our best 

 authorities. It is quite likely that other 

 insects practices the same sort of econ- 

 omy. Bees are not " animals." — C. H. 

 Dibbern. 



Your question suggests the inference 

 that bees do digest the nectar which 

 they gather before storing it. I cannot 

 accept that as true. I do not believe it 

 is true. — Eugene Secor. 



Now, my friend, do you believe that 

 the bees "fully digest" the honey as 

 you state in your query? If they fully 

 digested it, would they have any to 

 store? — H. D. Cutting. 



We do not believe that even the 

 honey-bee digests its food previous to 

 storing it in the cells. The honey which 

 they stored has been kept in the honey- 

 sac, and has not entered the digesting 

 stomach proper. — Dadant & Son. 



In the sense in which the word " di- 

 gest " is popularly understood, the honey- 

 bee does not digest its food. " Digested 

 nectar" may be scientific, but to the 

 majority of readers it is misleading. I 

 do not like the word in connection with 

 honey. — M. Mahin. 



The humble or "bumble" bee so- 

 called, gathers nectar and stores it in 

 small quantities. Prof. Cook should be 

 able to give a complete answer to the 

 above, if it is desired to know the species 

 that do so store, as well as whether any 

 others do store or not. — J. E. Pond. 



Yes, the bear and other hibernating 

 animals. No one claims that the food 

 (honey) of the bee is wholly digested 

 before storage. All that is claimed is 

 that the digestive process is commenced 

 by the conversion of the cane-sugar of 

 nectar into honey-sugar. — P. H.Elwood. 



No, nor does the honey-bee store di- 

 gested food. Not even man, with all 

 his knowledge of chemistry, can per- 

 fectly digest food to be stored up for 

 future use. The digestion of food is a 

 vital process, and no honey ever goes 

 through it and gets back into the combs. 

 — G. L. Tinker. 



Friend P. W., I do not think your trap 

 is baited right. I do not know as to 

 other animals, but my observations say 

 that bees do not digest the honey they 

 store for future use. Sweet cider fed to 

 bees and stored in the combs for future 

 use is sweet cider still, until it sours, as 

 I have tried it. — Mrs. Jennie Atchley. 



It is probable that all insects that 

 store the nectar of flowers change it to 

 a greater or less degree by digestion. 

 All animals that hibernate, as well as 

 many that do not, store up food for 

 future use after it is digested, in the 

 shape of fat. In fact, in this sense it 

 might be said that nearly all animals 

 store up digested food for future use. — 

 James A. Green. 



