May, 1909- 



American ^ee Journal 



carrying, one can look for signs about 

 the entrance in early morning. The im- 

 mature bees thrown out tell a true story. 

 Portions of worker pupae or imperfectly 

 developed workers show the undeniable 

 presence of a fertile queen. Drone-lar- 

 vae are a strong indication of a drone- 

 layer (I mean drone-larvse in early 

 April), and a colony showing such calls 

 for immediate examination, unless it 

 shows by other signs that the drone-lar- 

 vx are only some very early drones from 

 an unusually pushing colony. Last sea- 

 son I found 7 such colonies showing 

 drone-larvae in early April. Knowing 

 that these colonies had been given vir- 

 gin queens late in fall for a special ma- 

 ting, I was confident without further ex- 

 amination that each of those colonies 

 contained a virgin queen still. Queens 

 were immediately ordered from the 

 South, and every colony thus treated, 

 without other aid, developed into a sur- 

 plus-storing colony. 



After young bees have emerged in fair 

 numbers any warm forenoon will show 

 the flight of nurse-bees. The veriest 

 amateur should quickly learn to dis- 

 tinguish young bees in the first flight. 

 The flight of young bees is a sufficiently 

 good guarantee of the internal condition 

 of an undisturbed colony. 



Thrown-out pups and bits of imma- 

 ture bees, garnered through the efforts of 

 the bees to dislodge a wax-worm from 

 sealed brood, may not always be present 

 to tell the story in the early morning ex- 

 amination of the entrance. In such case 

 look for the refuse thrown out at night. 

 If it is large in amount it points beyond 

 doubt to the expanding brood-nest. 

 Only good colonies show a littered en- 

 trance in early morning — an entrance 

 that was clear the evenmg before. 



Warmth is a good indicator by which 

 to diagnose the brood-nest of a colony. 

 Thrust the hand under the packing or 

 the cushion and find by the temperature 

 the extent and progress of brood-rear- 

 ing. Again, at the close of the day a 

 current of warm air fanned from the 

 entrance is Emple proof of extensive 

 brood-rearing. The lazy hum of ven- 

 tilating bees is music to the ears of the 

 initiated. 



Indeed, the ways of diagnosing the 

 condition of a colony are almost num- 

 berless. An observing person knows of 

 scores, some of which he can describe, 

 others of which he knows only by in- 

 tuition. One who is living much among 

 his bees gets to disregard the normal 

 except as it is a source of restful con- 

 tent, but the abnormal is a glaring sign- 

 post. He may not be able to say what 

 the sign means, but he sees the sign and 

 proceeds to investigate. I recall an in- 

 stance : A party of several bee-keep- 

 ers were wandering about the yard of 

 one of the number, when suddenly one 

 of the party exclaimed, "What is the 

 matter with this colony?" All but two 

 of the persons were passing the colony 

 without in the slightest even dreaming 

 that something was wrong there. In- 

 vestigation showed that this colony had 

 not so much as one drop of honey in its 

 combs. Starving bees were in and about 

 the entrance is sparse numbers, only 

 enough to catch the eye of the observ- 

 ing, but the interior showed huddled 

 hosts on the verge of starvation. 



We see the laughable extreme when 

 the amateur congratulates himself that 

 his bees are hustling in the honey. He 

 tells his experienced friend about the 

 splendid honey-flow his bees are having. 

 This sage friend, still warm from a 

 skirmish with robbers (for the fields 

 have afforded no nectar for ten days), 

 visits the amateur's small apiary and 

 tries to explain to the young man, who 

 has eyes that see not, how to recognize 

 a robber-bee. 



More than half of the pleasure of bee- 

 keeping to many of us is the ceaseless 

 study which the bees afford. We like 

 to get bumper crops of honey, and we 

 prefer that our bees secure a profitable 

 surplus every year, but we get extreme- 

 ly keen enjoyment in mastering the prob- 

 lems of which the hive and the honey- 

 bee furnish such an unending stream. 



Norwichtown, Conn., April 29. 



Something About Pollen, 

 Propolis, Etc. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A subscriber to the American Bee 

 Journal wishes me to answer some 

 questions through its columns, as he 

 thinks the answers will be interesting 

 to itsmany readers. He says that some 

 of his colonies store large quantities 

 of pollen in the sections in some years, 

 and asks, "Why do bees store pollen 

 in sections?" 



The storing of pollen in the sections 

 or surplus apartment of the hive is 

 largely brought about by the queen fill- 

 ing the brood-chamber so full of brood 

 that there is little room below for the 

 pollen which comes in from the fields. 

 Then, the very complete doorways or 

 entrance into the sections of the pres- 

 ent day have something to do with the 

 matter, also, as well as the use of small 

 brood-chambers. This storing of pollen 

 in sections is something which does not 

 very often happen with large hives, 

 and was comparatively unknown in the 

 days of our fathers, when only auger- 

 holes through an inch thick or over, 

 bored at the top of the hive, was the 

 doorway to the honey-boxes. But with 

 the small brood-chambers of the pres- 

 ent day it is not at all unusual for this 

 state of affairs to exist, especially where 

 a queen-excluder over the brood-combs 

 and underneath the sections is not used. 

 The queen-excluding honey-board is a 

 great help along this line. This ex- 

 cluder, is hard to squeeze through with 

 the pollen-baskets well loaded with pol- 

 len, as it often pulls the loads of pollen 

 from the baskets, so the bees are loath 

 to go into the sections through it with 

 pollen, while they can go through with 

 comparative ease with loads of honey. 

 Then the pollen, as a rule, is stored 

 close to the brood, and for this reason 

 large hives tend to keep it out of the 

 sections, because, as in this case, there 

 is usually quite an amount of sealed 

 honey between the brood in the hive 

 below and the room in the sections 

 above, this acting very much as did the 

 auger-holes of our fathers. But, as 

 more honey from new or prime swarms 

 can be secured from small brood-cham- 



bers, I suppose that these will continue 

 in use with very many, so that the 

 queen-excluder has the right of way 

 with such as use these to keep the pollen 

 ovi. 



He next asks : "Is pollen a food for 

 those bees which are seen going in and 

 out from the hive? or what is it stored 

 for?" 



Pollen is not a food for the mature 

 bees, or to any extent, but it is used 

 very largely in compounding the chyle 

 or chyme which is fed to the larvae or 

 young bee while in the larval state, 

 hence when the bees are breeding large- 

 ly, as in June in our northern States, 

 large quantities of pollen are consumed. 

 Pollen, honey and water are taken into 

 the stomach of the nurse-bee, and by a 

 process of digestion or secretion, or 

 both, formed into milk or chyme, which 

 is the only food of the bee while in 

 the larval state, on something of the 

 principle that the pigeon turns wheat 

 which it takes, to "pigeon milk," to feed 

 the young pigeons. When the nurse 

 bees are thus manufacturing great quan- 

 tities of chyme, if from any reason the 

 supply of honey entirely gives out, at 

 times of prolific brood-rearing, the lar- 

 vx are sucked dry by the mature bees 

 so they (the bees) need not perish, and 

 if the famine still continues, the nurse- 

 bees feed the chyme which they already 

 have prepared, to the mature bees in- 

 stead of the larvae, and thus a few days 

 from starvation is gained, which often 

 allows the dearth to be tided over, and 

 and the colony be kept alive. 



Next I am asked: "What is bee- 

 bread?" If I should answer, only pol- 

 len, I would be quite correct, but this 

 \yould not be such an answer as I would 

 like to receive were I the questioner. 

 The term "bee-bread" is one that is 

 rarely heard at the present time, as pol- 

 len has taken its place; but 50 or 60 

 years ago the word "pollen," as applied 

 to the farina of flowers which the bees 

 gatlier, was hardly heard once in a 

 lifetime. It was always bee-bread that 

 the bees were bringing into the hive. 

 But that the reader of the present day 

 can understand better, I will explain a 

 little. 



All close observers know that nearly, 

 if not quite, all of the pollen stored 

 prior to the flow of nectar from white 

 clover, is left with the mouth of the 

 cells containing it wide open, and is 

 used for the every-day feeding of the 

 larva;. White clover now comes on, 

 and the pollen gathered from that and 

 the rest of the clovers has a different 

 color from that gathered from any oth- 

 er flower, the same being a dark-brown 

 or greenish-brown color, while most 

 other pollen are of a much lighter 

 color. Now, very much of this clover 

 pollen, instead of being used for the 

 immediate wants of the brood, is stored 

 in the cells until they are from two- 

 thirds to three-fourths full, when the 

 remainder of the cell is filled with hon- 

 ey, and the same capped over just the 

 same as any or all cells of honey are 

 capped, this evidently being done to 

 preserve this pollen over till some fu- 

 ture time when it would be needed for 

 brood-rearing, when no pollen was to 

 be obtained from the fields. Now, such 

 pollen stored under honey, was the "bee- 



