690 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



Under the head of " American Courtesy" 

 the editor of the /. B.J. says, " C. P. Da- 

 dant has issued an invitation for a delega- 

 tion of British bee-keepers to a convention 

 at St. Louis. He has not thought it neces- 

 sary to invite Irish bee keepers. Mr. Da- 

 dant is vice-president of the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association of the United States. 

 He ought to knowr better." Of course, the 

 editor must not be taken too seriously in the 

 above. I am sure Mr. Dadant meant to in- 

 clude in the w^ord "'British" all who live 

 under the British flag, whether in Ireland, 

 New Zealand, or Nova Scotia. Whatever 

 happens, it is certain that Mr. Dadant 

 never slights any one. He doubtless meant 

 to invite the Britirish bee men, so to speak. 



TOO MUCH POLLEN. 



" Great j'car for pollen, this." 



" Well, Brown, I have known years when 

 bees stored fully as much as this year. 

 Does this storing of pollen bother you?" 



" Yes; or I think that what they have in 

 the combs will be a damage to me." 



" Possibly. But let us talk the matter 

 over a little and see about it. What did the 

 bees .^tore it from?" 



"First, they stored frcm the hard maple 

 till I thought the ccmbs would hold no 

 more. But we had a week of stormy 

 weather soon after, and they used the most 

 of this for brood rearing, so I got rid of 

 that. Then came sorrel, of which we have 

 acres; then the wild grape, together with 

 that from clover, till the combs are so full 

 that there is little room for brood or honey. 

 Is not such a state detrimental to the wel- 

 fare of the colony? and should it not be re- 

 moved? 



" In some localities bees store so much 

 pollen that it seems to those not so thorough- 

 ly familiar with the inside workings of the 

 hive as they ought to be that some device for 

 removing this pollen would be of great ben- 

 efit to them; in fact, I heard a man once 

 offer as high as $25 for some plan to re- 

 move pollen effectually from the combs 

 without materially injuring the same. 

 This was at a bee convention. Then I have 

 also heard it advised to melt up the combs 

 which had so much pollen in them so as to 

 get the wax, which wax was to be worked 

 over into comb foundation to put into the 

 hive for the bees to draw out into comb 

 again." 



" Did you not think that good advice? " 



"Well, hardly; for with me this pollen 

 will take up all the wax there is in a comb 



when put into the solar wax-extractor, 

 while with steam it is nearly as bad. The 

 only way any wax to any amount can be 

 gotten from combs containing much pollen 

 is to boil these ccmbs in water. This will 

 wet up the pollen with the water, and allow 

 the wax to escape without the pollen ab- 

 sorbing it, as it otherwise would, on the 

 same principle that a sponge takes up 

 water." 



" That is something I had not thought of 

 when considering melting up combs con- 

 taining polen. The hot water process is 

 too long and tedious for me to undertake. 

 What did ycu think about the machine 

 remedy? " 



" About the same as the melting plan. 

 All such advice seems to me to be a damage 

 rather than a help." 



" You surprise me. What makes ycu 

 think that way? " 



" In this locality we get large quantities 

 of pollen, probably as much as is gathered 

 in any portion of the United States, yet I 

 have never melted up a comb on this ac- 

 count, n r would I give a cent for the best 

 machine that could be invented for its re- 

 moval." 



" But did you never see where the bees 

 remove it and pash it out at the entrance? 

 And does not this show that they had too 

 much of it? " 



' ■ Some claim that, where too much pollen 

 is stored in combs, the bees remove it and 

 tumble it out at the entrance, as 30U speak 

 of; but I am inclined to think that they and 

 you mistake that which is sometimes dis- 

 lodged from the pollen- baskets of the bees 

 at certain hives having too small an en- 

 trance from some reason, or an entrance- 

 guard on, for that which is removed from 

 the combs, as in all of my experience and 

 careful observation I have never seen any 

 to be thrown cut in this way unless said 

 pollen had become moldy." 



" I guess you do not have as much pollen 

 as you think you do." 



"We have two different periods when 

 the bees store very much more pollen than 

 is worked by the nurse bees into chyme for 

 the young brood. One is during the bloom 

 from hard maple, and the other during 

 white-clover bloom, so you see our surplus 

 of pollen is similar to yours." 



"Yes, I see. But how full do the bees 

 fill the combs? " 



" I have had many combs of pollen that 

 weighed from 4 to 4>i pounds." 



" That beats me. I had one comb that 

 weighed 33+ lbs., and I said, 'If it could 

 only have been honey! ' What do you do 

 when you find combs so heavy with pollen 

 as 4>^ pounds? " 



With such combs and times as these I 

 often work as follows: Whenever the bees 

 gather so much as to crowd the queen I 

 next to the brood, and find that this ans- 

 wers a better purpose, at less expense and 

 work, to stimulate brood- rearing early in 

 the spring than the feeding of rye, oat, or 

 any meal, as is so often recommended by 



