VOL. LVIII— NO. 3 



HAMILTON, ILL., MARCH, 1918 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YFAR 



POLLEN AND PQLLEN PLANTS 



BY JOHN H. LOVELL 



IT is seldom in the Northern States 

 that bees run short of pollen, 

 although this occasionally hap- 

 pens in early spring. Usually a sup- 

 ply sufficient to last until the wil- 

 lows and elms bloom is carried 

 through the winter. The only lo- 

 cality in this country known to the 

 writer, in which serious pollen fam- 

 ines occur is in the tupelo section 

 along the Appalachicola river. Most 

 of the pollen here in April and May 

 is obtained from willows, maples, 

 elms and oaks. The tupelo yields 

 very little, and there is not much 

 general farming. The tupelo flow, 

 writes W. D. Achord, averages from 

 April 20 to May 5, during which 

 from SO to 125 pounds of honey are 

 stored. There is plenty of pollen 

 up to about June 15; but after that 

 there is little or none for from 60 to 

 90 days, or until September. One 

 hundred miles northward there is an 

 abundance of pollen throughout the 

 season. The colonies become very 

 weak and the queens cease laying; 

 but neither Achord nor Mar chant, 

 two prominent beekeepers in this 

 section, feeds substitutes. 



But in Australia pollen famines 

 are as regular as the seasons them- 

 selves. There is a "critical period" 

 in mid— summer, when the pollen 

 fails, the queen ceases to lay eggs 

 and the brood dies of starvation. 

 This shortage is attributed by Ray- 

 ment to the failure of the gum- 

 trees, or eucalypti, to produce much 

 pollen. There are some 200 species 

 of gum-trees in Australia, which 

 cover great areas of arid land. So 

 lavish is the flow of nectar that 

 three or four nests of wild bees have 

 been found in a single tree, and 

 when a flowering branch is shaken 

 the nectar falls like rain. But so 

 small is the supply of pollen that 

 colonies of bees working on yellow 

 gum dwindle down to mere hand- 

 fuls. although there is a fine crop of 

 honey. Beuhne says that he has 

 used all kinds of substitutes in large 



quantities, but, although the hives 

 were well filled with brood, the bees 

 thus raised were lacking in vitality 

 and were short-lived. He has never 

 been able to obtain a strong force of 

 field bees. 



Cannot, then, substitutes for pol- 

 len be used to advantage? When 

 there is a scarcity of pollen the bees 

 bring in bits of fresh sawdust, spores 

 of fungi, and occasionally, in the 

 vicinity of cheese factories, cheese 

 mites. The beekeeper usually resorts 

 to rye meal, cottonseed meal, wheat 

 flour, oatmeal or pea meal, and some- 

 times to strange mixtures of eggs, 

 milk and sugar. Rye meal is a fa- 

 vorite spring feed, and cottonseed 

 meal has been strongly advocated. 

 If it is desired to feed the meal in- 

 side the hive flour candy is used. 

 This is made by mixing one part of 

 rye meal with three parts sugar and 

 a little water, and cooking it until 



Fig. 1. WHITE WILLOW 'Sali: 

 Staminate or pollen-producing catl 

 large, freely blooming tree. 



it will sugar. It is then vigorously 

 stirred and poured into greased pans. 

 It is difficult to make, may cause 

 brood rearing at the wrong time, and 

 is probably of no benefit. 



The bees gather rye meal eagerly, 

 indeed they may gather too much of 

 it; and Root says that he has known 

 the combs to be packed with it to 

 the exclusion of pollen. Neither can 

 there be any doubt that these substi- 

 tutes stimulate brood rearing, for in 

 colonies in which were healthy 

 queens but no pollen, eggs or brood, 

 three days after rye meal had been 

 fed, there were a large number of 

 eggs in the cells. The fact that 

 brood rearing can thus be stimulated 

 has led many beekeepers to jump to 

 the conclusion that the use of pollen 

 substitutes must be desirable; but 

 Allen Latham has recently asserted 

 that they are not only not beneficial 

 but are positively injurious. He 

 found that later in the season the 

 colonies not fed were in better con- 

 dition than those that were. We 

 think these conclusions sound: Feed- 

 ing meal in early spring causes the 

 bees to waste away by flying out in 

 cold weather when they had better 

 remain quiet; injures their digestive 

 powers, and the weak brood and 

 bees thus obtained lessens rather 

 than adds to the strength of the 

 colony. 



There are no plants more valuable 

 for pollen in early spring than the 

 willows, especially the pussy willow 

 (Salix discolor), the earliest of the 

 willows to bloom. Provide an ample 

 pollen supply by planting along the 

 brook or in low waste land as many 

 of the staminate bushes as you can. 

 Do not plant the pistillate bushes, 

 for they yield no pollen. The stam- 

 inate bushes bloom regularly and 

 produce enormous quantities of pol- 

 len. They also secrete nectar freely. 

 They have this advantage over the 

 elms, alders, birches, oaks and other 

 wind-pollinated plants that none of 

 the pollen is lost. They are insect- 



