1296 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



■^ry\:.:-^:gmj:jt^'^^ 



HANDLING BROOD-COMBS IN LOW TEMPERA- 

 TURES; POLLEN AS FOOD. 



•'My name is Robinson. Is this Mr. Doo- 

 little whom I meet? " 



" Yes, this is Doolittle." 



"Glad to meet you. I have wanted a lit- 

 tle talk with you for some time through 

 Gleanings, but I see that your department 

 is always full, so have waited for my turn 

 to come ever since last May." 



"Too bad I could not get to you sooner; 

 but others seemed just a little more anxious 

 than you. What can I do for you to-day'.'"" 



"I want to know about handling bees 

 on cool or cold days. In how low a temper- 

 ature can brood be handled without injury?" " 



" Well, that depends on two things. First, 

 how long it is to be kept out of the hive: 

 and, second, whether the wind is blowing." 



' • Does the wind make the temperature run 

 any lower? " 



"Perhaps not by the thermometer; but it 

 does make a difference where animal heat is 

 to be retained, as you \erj well know, else 

 you would not resort to a fan on a very 

 warm day.'" 



"Ah! I see. Excuse my thoughtlessness." 



"In my experiments along this line I have 

 found that brood can be handled as safely on 

 a still day with the mercury standing at 45° 

 as it can on a day with a high wind at 65, or 

 55 with a moderate wind. In fact, with a 

 high wind I do not practice handling brood, 

 if it can be avoided, with a temperature less 

 than 70°." 



' • Then your idea is that the wind blows 

 right thi'ough the bees that adhere to the 

 combs when they are out of the hive, and by 

 the current of air continually striking the 

 c(mib of l)rood the brood is chilled as quick- 

 ly with a temperature of (i5° with the wind 

 as it would be with a temperature of 45° 

 with no wind? " 



"That is it exactly; and to overcome this 

 matter I have built a" light windbreak to car- 

 ry with me when I must handle l)ees in 

 windy weather, as the queen-breeder often 

 has to do in carrying out the many parts of 

 the matter which can not be delayed." 



"Well, that is quite a scheme. How is 

 such a thing constructed ? " 



"I simply took three inch-square pieces of 

 pine, tive feet long, and to these I nailed 

 (luarter-inch stuff, of the length required, 

 nailing on two sides of one of the pieces, so 

 as to form a corner post to set facing the 

 wind. This would send the wind angling 

 each way from me and the hive wben at 

 work at the same, so the bees and I would 



have a cozy little nook in behind this wind- 

 break, as calm as a summer moi'uing. " 



"But would not the wind upset such a 

 light affair?" 



"Yes, if no precaution were used." 



"What precaution did you provide?" 



"I drove, slanting, down through the bot- 

 tom of each of the three inch-square posts, a 

 piece of stiff wire flattened at the end, which 

 was to stay in the post, so it would not turn 

 around when the part which stood out be- 

 yond the post was bent anchor fashion, so 

 they could be pushed into the ground wlien 

 the bi'eak was placed w^here I wished, and 

 shoved a little the way the wind was blowing; 

 and should the wind blow by gusts, each gust 

 that was hard enoiigh to move the break at 

 all would only push the anchors just that 

 much further into the ground, so it would 

 hold that much firmer." 



"Well, you have overcome that part of the 

 matter, surely. But you have not yet told 

 me how low a temperature it will be safe to 

 handle 1)rood in.'" 



"I handle brood as little as possible when 

 the temperature is less than 60 degrees in the 

 shade, with the sun shining at the time 1 am 

 doing the work. But w^here I have only a 

 frame or two to lift from the hive for only a 

 moment, t> see if some queen is laying, or 

 something of that kind, I often do it with a 

 temperature as low as 45; bv;t no hive having 

 much brood in it should he kept open foi" 

 any length of time when the mercury stands 

 much lower than 60 degrees." 



"Thank yoi;. But there is another ques- 

 tion I wish to ask you. Do the old Itees eat 

 any of the pollen they gather, or do they 

 feed it all to the young bees ? " 



"Pollen is gathered for the young bees: 

 or, as I suppose you mean by 'young l)ees," 

 bees in the larval form. Old bees do not eat 

 pollen. By 'old bees' I mean bees after 

 they have emerged from their cells, no mat- 

 ter whether they have been out of the cells 

 an hour or forty days." 



" But how can the larval bees eat pollen 

 unless the old bees feed it to them ?" 



"They can not." 



"Then the old bees must eat it, or at least 

 a part of it when they feed the larva?."' 



"Not necessarily. I am not a chemist 

 (have many times wished I were), so can 

 not explain matters to you except in my 

 homespun style; Ijut. as I undei'stand it, a 

 certain amount of pollen, honey, and water, 

 is taken liy the nurse bee and partially di- 

 gested, or in some way formed into chyle by 

 this nurse bee, something after the plan the 

 dove or pigeon takes wheat and turns it into 

 the 'milk' the young jjigeon is fed on while 

 it is in the nest; and this chyle is fed to 

 the larval bees by these nurse l)ees, pollen 

 being used only feu* this purpose of chyle or 

 chyme, in a more or less modified form, to 

 suit the age of the larva;." 



"Then you think that old bees can not ex- 

 ist on pollen when there is no honey in the 

 hive ? " 



"I not only so think, but kttoir that they 

 can not." 



