1888 



GLEANINGS m BKK culture. 



689 



With Replies from our best Authorities on Bees. 



All queries sent in for this department should be briefly 

 stated, and free from any possible ambiguity. The question 

 or questions should be written upon a separate slip of paper, 

 anci marked, " For Our Question-Box." 



Question No. 73.— Can bees in winter quarters live 

 on bee-bread, without honey? If so, how long? 



No. Dadant & Son. 



I don't know. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



I do not know, but such scientists as Prof. Cook 

 can tell us. O. O. Poppleton. 



1. Yes; 3. For over a week I tried the experiment 

 last winter. Dr. A. B. Mason. 



No, never. They will starve very soon. See my 

 article in ^. B. J. A. J. Cook. 



I think not, but I believe they will readily die on it 

 with or without honey. Geo. Grimm. 



I don't think that bees can live on bee-bread any 

 longer than it is moist with honey. 



Chas F. Muth. 



I don't think they could, any more than man 

 could live on solid food ^\'ithout water. 



Paul L. Viallon. 



No. I have had bees starve in hives well stocked 

 with pollen easily accessible, and without any di- 

 arrhea. C. C. Miller. 



I have had bees die with plenty of bee-bread and 

 no honey. I don't know how long- they lived after 

 the honey was all gone. E. France. 



Bees can live for a short time on bee-bread; and 

 as a heat-producing food it is better than honey— 

 i. e., it will produce more heat. P. H. Elwood. 



Just how long bees can so live, I can not tell; but 

 they often die for want of honey when there is an 

 abundance of pollen present. L. C. Root. 



No. Bees eat bee - bread mixed with honey in 

 winter; but in my opinion they are better off with- 

 out it. They will very soon starve on it alone. 



James A. Green. 



T think not. It is possible they would eat a little 

 after the honey had become exhausted, but T think 

 they would live just as long without it, and possibly 

 longer. H. R. Boardman. 



If the repository is warm enough, they can live 

 on bee-bread just long enough to get the bee 

 diarrhea so badly as to die in a dreadful muss— say 

 a few weeks. James Heddon. 



If I am right, bee-bread is pollen kneaded up soft 

 with honey. If the winter quarters were warm 

 enough they might suck the honey and throw away 

 part of the granules, and thus subsist as long as 

 the supply held out. In ordinary practice, a col- 

 ony soon perishes when they have nothing left but 

 bee-bread. E. E. Hasty. 



I think not. I have been trying to get bees to 

 eat bee-bread when I desired to have them; and 

 although these experiments have cost me at least 

 $.50.00, yet I have succeeded only in starving my 

 bees. From what Prof. Cook said in a late number 

 of Gleanings, 1 shall look with interest for his an- 

 swer to this question. The only time that I ever 

 knew pollen to form any part of the diet of old 

 bees was in a time of famine, that came through 



cold weather, at a time when bees were living from 

 hand to mouth, and feeding large quantities of 

 brood in June. In this case the mature bees ate up 

 all the brood that had " milk " in it, and evidently 

 the nurse-bees t'ormed the pollen into chyme, so 

 that all were kept from starving till the pollen was 

 used up, the chyme being fed to the old bees. 



G. M. Doolittle. 



Question No. 74.— Can colonies be united in the 

 cellar in the winter, unthout fighting? 



Yes, sir. 



I think they can. 



I have never tried it. 



H. K. Boardman. 



C. C. Miller. 



James A. Green. 



I never tried it, and do not wish to. 



Dadant & Son. 

 I should judge so, but I have never tried it. 



P. H. Elwood. 

 I have had no experience in cellar wintering. 



Paul L. Viallon. 

 I have never tried it, but I feel sure they could. 



A. J. Cook. 

 Yes, I have frequently done this, with no bad re- 

 sults. G. M. Doolittle. 



I don't know. I never tried it. I think they 

 could. E. France. 



I do not know, but I can see no object in doing it, 

 even if it can be done. O. O. Poppleton. 



Yes. I united eight last winter, and I could not 

 see that any were killed. Dr. A. B. Mason. 



I have often had colonies unite in the cellar when 

 they were placed close together. L. C. Root. 



I never tried it, but I think it can be done safely 

 so far as the fighting is concerned. Geo. Grimm. 



Yes, they will frequently unite themselves, where 

 one colony becomes queenless. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. It is a poor 

 place and time to unite colonies, I think. 



James Heddon. 



Yes. In my first wintering (27 years since) in a 

 warm cellar, with common box hives inverted, the 

 bees of strong colonies sitting close together came 

 to the upper end and clustered admirably together. 



R. Wilkin. 



I have had no experience with bees in a cellar: 

 but if one of the two colonies to be united has been 

 queenless for 34 hours they can be united any- 

 where without fighting, providing the remaining 

 queen is a laying one. Chas. F. Muth. 



Question No. 7.5.— Homj ea/rly in the spring do you 

 desire bees to commence brood-rearing? 



March 15. James A. Green. 



In February. Dr. A. B. Mason. 



In this climate, the first half of April. 



P. H. Elwood. 

 As early as possible, according to climate. 



Dadant & Son. 

 As soon as possible after removal from the cellar. 



Geo. Grimm. 

 As early as their instincts and conditions will al- 

 low. R Wflktn 



Here in the South they commence in Jaiiuar.v, 

 Viut P'eliruarj' Ist is as early as I care for them to do 

 so. Paul L. Viallon. 



