1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



12.5 



teids oi- albuminoids. These substances, which are 

 well illustrated in the white of an eg-g, the albumen 

 of the blood, the casein (or cheese) of milk, are 

 often called nitrogenous substances, as they con- 

 tain nitrogen as well as oxygen, hydrogen, and 

 carbon, which last three chemical elements are 

 found without the nitrogen in starch, sugar, and 

 the oils, or fats. In addition to the proteids, pollen 

 also contains much water and several inorganic 

 elements, such as the alkalies, lime, magnesia, 

 phosphoric acid, and sulphuric acid. It would be 

 impossible to give an exact chemical formula for 

 pollen. Like our grains, which it somewhat resem- 

 bles, the composition varies with the kind, and, 

 probably, somewhat even In the same kind. Thus 

 I find these formulff' for oats and wheat: 



Oats. Wheat. 



Water 12 7 12.5 



Albuminoids 10.1 13.5 



Starch 56.0 08.4 



Oil 2.3 13 



Fiber 16.6 2.7 



Ash 2.3 1.7 



While these are much alike, we see a marked dif- 

 ference, especially in the amount of oil and pro- 

 teids. I presume pollen is i-icher in proteids than 

 either of the above; and so, while flour will serve 

 as a substitute for pollen for our bees, I dare say 

 pollen is richer and hence better. As food is not 

 perfect unless it contains all these different ele- 

 ments: Proteids, carbo-hydrates (starch and su- 

 gars), and oils, and as honey contains only the su- 

 gars, to any considerable degree, we see why our 

 bees must have the pollen. This last supplies the 

 proteids and oils. We also note how desirable that 

 they have a nitrogenous food particularly rich in 

 the proteid elements. As we could get along with- 

 out much albuminous food, such as muscle, cheese, 

 beans, etc., for a lime if we exercised very little, 

 and possibly be the better for it, so our bees may 

 go for weeks— yes, months, in winter — when they 

 are so inactive, with no pollen, and so with no 

 proteids, except the very little existing in the 

 honey, and possibly they are the better off. 



(2) What proportion of the food of the lai-vm is pollen .' 



The larvie of bees are, I think, fed almost no pol- 

 len. The old view of Swammerdam and Dufour, 

 that bees digest their food, and feed it, thus digested, 

 to the larva?, is still entertained, In part at least, by 

 such able authorities as Mr. Cowan, Schonfeld, Plan- 

 ta, etc. (see British Bee Journal, 1887, p. 185). On 

 the other hand, Leuckart and his able student Schie- 

 menz believe that the food of the queen-larv;e, and 

 most of that of the other larvrt?, and that of the 

 laying queen, is not digested food, but really a se- 

 cretion from the large glands of the head of the 

 worker bee. This view, which it seems to me Is the 

 more rational one, makes the food of the larva? 

 like milk, instead of chyle. We would not say we 

 fed the young calf hay and oats because these 

 formed the rations of the mother cow; so we do 

 not say that pollen is the food of the larviv 

 because bees need it to form or secrete food for 

 them. The cow must have albuminous food, or she 

 can give no milk verj' long. So the bee? must have 

 the pollen to elaborate food for the larvie. 



Dr. Planta shows that the food of worker larvse 

 differs from that of queen and drone larvfe. Schie- 

 menz showed that the worker larva, just at the last, 

 was fed pollen, and, presumably, honey. Thus 

 quite likely the composition of the food is thus 

 changed. Thus we might say that the queen larva 



was fed profusely with exclusive bee-milk, while 

 the workers were fed scantily of the same, which at 

 last was adulterated with honey and chyle. Schon- 

 feld shows that it is not impossible for the bee to re- 

 gurgitate the chyle. Indeed, the pollen in the work- 

 er larva's intestine, just before it pupates, or be- 

 fore it sheds its alimentary canal with its last larval 

 molt, shows that it is fed chyle in some part. As 

 Schiemenz.shows, there are good reasons to think 

 that the laying queen is fed the same bee-milk. 



(3) Is pollen a part of the regular food of the ma- 

 ture heel 



I have already answered this question. The ima- 

 go, or mature bee, must have pollen, not only to 

 nourish its own tissues, but the nurse bees are 

 equally dependent on it to form the bee-milk, or se- 

 cretion which they feed to the queen and all larvte. 

 If we feed a cow simply on starch or sugar, she 

 would soon pine away, and her milk-glands would 

 cease to secrete; so if we feed our bees simply on 

 honey, they likewise, when active, would soon 

 waste away, and, as all observing apiarists know, 

 they could not care for brood. Pollen is absolutely 

 necessary for bees when functionally active. 



Agricultural College, Mich. A. J. Cook. 



DEONES-SOMETHING IN REGARD TO 

 THEM BY L. L. LANGSTROTH. 



CONTINUED FROM PAGE 82. 



§INCE writing my last article I have had the 

 pleasure of seeing the first volume of Mr. 

 Cheshire's admirable contributions to the 

 Physiology of the Honey-Bee. Without de- 

 fining the time when the drone is di.*po8ed to 

 mate, Cheshire demonstrates, microscopically, that 

 it must beat least several days old; and my obser- 

 vations show that sexual desire comes much later. 



Mahan, as stated in my work, first made the im- 

 portant observation that drones, leaving the hive to 

 mate, have a large supply of honey, which is found 

 on their return to have been almost entirely con- 

 sumed. I failed to ascertain how many marital ex- 

 cursions drones would average in a single day; but 

 as they are often flying about three hours in favor- 

 able weather it is probable that they make three 

 such trips at least. To do this they must consume 

 twice as much honey as a swarming worker that 

 carries off in its honey-sac almost a week's supply. 

 The importance of preventing any overproduction 

 is therefore obvious without any further comment. 

 Let me here make some suggestions to those who 

 aim to exclude all drone comb from most of their 

 stocks. I say suggestions, for, after having been 

 precluded by sickness from the practical manage- 

 ment of bees for most of my time during the past 15 

 years It would ill become me to speak in too confi- 

 dent a manner. 



In limiting the production of drones to just as 

 few as we think will be needed for the fertilization 

 of our queens, may we not err against that wise 

 precept, "There is that withholdeth more than is 

 meet, but it tendeth only to want"? It is easy to 

 take for granted, that every bee in a healthy popu- 

 lous colony will do all that it can to enrich its home, 

 even in the entire absence of anj- drones; so it is 

 easy to assume that every worker in an artificial 

 swarm will work just as well as it would in a natu- 

 ral one; but who, after a large experience with 

 both methods, can deny that, for the production of 



