82 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



colony with a fertile queen be confined to an empty hive, 

 and supplied with honey, comb will be rapidly built, and 

 the cells filled with eggs, which in due time will be 

 hatched ; but the worms will all die within twenty-four 

 hours. 



Some Apiarians believe that bees with an abundance 

 of both pollen and honey, will secrete wax much faster 

 than when supplied with honey alone ; and that its secre- 

 tion, without pollen, severely taxes their strength. 



In September, 1856, 1 put a very large colony of bees 

 into a new hive, to determine some points on which I was 

 then experimenting. The weather was fine, and they 

 gathered pollen, and built comb very rapidly; still, for 

 ten days, the queen-bee deposited no eggs in the cells. 

 During all that time, these bees stored very little pollen in 

 the combs. One of the days being so stormy that they 

 could not go abroad, they were supplied with rye flour 

 (see p. 84), none of which, although very greedily appro- 

 priated, could be found in the cells. During all this 

 time, as there was no brood to be fed, the pollen must 

 have been used by the bees either for nourishment, or to 

 assist them in secreting wax ; or, as I believe, for both 

 these purposes. 



Bees prefer to gather fresh bee-bread, even when there 

 are large accumulations of old stores in the cells. With 

 hives giving the control of the combs, the surplus of old 

 colonies may be made to supply the deficiency of young 

 ones ; the latter, in Spring, being often destitute of this 

 important article. 



If honey and pollen ca"n both be obtained from the same 

 blossom, the industrious insect usually gathers a load of 

 each. To prove this, let a few pollen-gatherers be dis- 

 sected when honey is plenty ; and their honey-sacs will 

 ordinarily be full. 



