WINTER FOOD FOR BEES. 



107 



substitution of other combs for those containing pollen. But good col- 

 onies should begin brood rearing in January or February, and pollen or 

 a suitable substitute for it containing nitrogen must then be present 

 or the nurse bees will be subjected to a fearful drain on their vitality 

 to supply the rich nitrogenous secretion required by the developing 

 larva?; in fact, they can not do so long, and the colony dwindles. This 

 absurd theory that bees can not have access to pollen in winter without 

 detrimental results can best be answered by referring to the well-known 

 fact that a colony in a large box or straw hive, freely ventilated, yet 

 having some part of the hive protected from drafts of air and kept dry, 

 will almost invariably come out strong in the spring if populous in the 

 fall, heavy with honey, and having a young and vigorous queen. The 



WATER- - 



- v. SUGAR-. .- 



FIG. 71. Percolator for preparation of winter food. (Original.) 



pollen, it could not possibly be claimed, had been injurious to such 

 colonies, although they always gather and store it without restriction, 

 and are not disturbed in the possession of it. In truth, their stores of 

 pollen have constituted an important factor in their development, and 

 the strong instinct which they have toward making accumulations of 

 pollen for winter use and which they have exercised for thousands 

 of years undisturbed is of great benefit to them. 



Other conditions being equal, those colonies having the most honey 

 stored compactly in the brood apartment and close about the very 

 center where the last brood of young bees should emerge, are the ones 

 which will winter best. Forty pounds for a northern latitude and :!<) 

 in the middle sections of the United States may be considered only a 



