1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



81 



legs or in the hive after it has been 

 moistened with nectar it is brown ; 

 but in the flower it is bright yellow. 

 Not all brown pollen in the hive 

 conies from clover, and I have exam- 

 ined specimen after specimen under 

 the microscope without finding any 



Fig. 5. Wild rose (Rosa humilis). A pollen 



flower with many stamens, 

 clover pollen. Irregular flowers, like 

 peas and beans, do not furnish much 

 pollen. (Fig. 4.) 



Groves of nut trees, such as the 

 pecan, hickory and chestnut, the 

 only nut trees which have been do- 

 mesticated in this country, furnish 

 an abundance of pollen. Rayment 

 says that in Australia the date palm 

 is a "splendid honey plant"; but he 

 adds in the next sentence that large 

 crops from it have never been re- 

 ported. A part of the trees are 

 staminate and a part pistillate and 

 the pollen is carried by the wind, 

 not by insects. In other words, it is 

 not a honey plant at all, although 

 bees very often visit the staminate 

 trees for pollen. But wild roses are 

 splendid pollen flowers, and the bees, 

 both wild and domestic, visit the 

 flowers so eagerly, as soon as they 

 open, that the entire supply is car- 

 ried off in a few hours. (Fig. 5.) The 

 California poppy is also a good pol- 

 len flower, and in the valleys of that 

 State covers the ground with a 

 golden carpet much visited by bees 

 for pollen. As for the banana, you 

 can gather pollen by the spoonful, 

 and bees work on it much as they 

 do on a pile of meal. In warm regions 

 where there are acres of this fruit 

 there must be enough pollen to meet 

 all requirements. 



In autumn a large amount of pol- 

 len is gathered from the goldenrods 

 and sunflowers. (Fig. 6.) They be- 

 long to the largest plant family, the 

 compositae, which llso includes the 

 asters, Spanish needles, gum-plant, 

 broomweed, thistles, boneset, crown- 

 beard and marigold. In moving over 

 the flower clusters bees controvert 

 the familiar proverb that it is possi- 

 ble to do well only one thing at a 

 time, for they suck nectar and 

 sweep up the pollen simultaneously. 

 In New England large quantities of 



goldenrod pollen are stored away 

 for another season. To the same 

 family belongs that pernicious weed, 

 the Roman wormwood, so common 

 in worn-out fields, a wind-pollinated 

 plant, which produces so much pol- 

 len in late fall that it is said to be 

 one of the causes of hay fever. 



We have shown that the pollen 

 supply in a locality may be increased 

 by planting the staminate bushes of 

 the willows, by setting out avenue 

 and nut trees, by seeding the land 

 with dandelions, by raising corn, 

 and also sunflowers, where the latter 

 do not grow wild. The sunflower 

 produces a great amount of pollen 

 and yields it for a long time. In this 

 connection it may be inquired 

 whether there are any foreign plants 

 the introduction of which would in- 

 crease the pollen supply. One of the 

 most promising is cape weed (Cryp- 

 tostemma ealendulaceum) , the most im- 

 portant pollen plant of Australia, 

 which was introduced from South 

 Africa in ■ 1836 and has since spread 

 over the entire Australian continent. 

 Its leaves and flowers resemble those 

 of the dandelion, and it not only 

 yields large quantities of bright or- 

 ange pollen but it is a good honey 

 plant as well, and excellent feed for 

 milch cows. A full description of 

 this plant appeared in the American 

 Bee Journal for December, 1915. 



Rejecting the feeding of pollen 

 substitutes as of no benefit, or in- 

 jurious, there are only three ways in 

 which a beekeeper can meet a pollen 

 famine. He may increase the num- 

 ber of plants producing pollen in 

 large quantities, as has just been de- 

 scribed, or, secondly, he may move 

 his hives to another locality tem- 

 porarily: or, thirdly, he may give 

 combs of pollen. A. B. Marchant de- 

 scribed some time ago in Gleanings 

 in Bee Culture how he would make 

 use of the second method. From 

 April to June his bees were to re- 

 main in the tupelo section, storing 

 an ample crop of honey. After the 

 flow was over they were to be re- 

 moved to an island some 15 miles 

 southward, where pollen was more 

 abundant, and where they were to 

 remain for the balance of the year. 



A writer in the American Bee 

 Journal has pointed out that it is as 

 necessary for beekeepers to reserve 

 surplus combs of pollen as it is combs 

 of honey. It may in some cases be 

 even more important, since we can 

 fi ed sugar syrup, but have no sub- 

 stitute for pollen. It not infre- 

 quently happens, especially in locali- 

 ties where pollen is very abundant, 

 that combs largely filled with pollen 

 can be removed from a hive with ap- 

 parent advantage. Bees without 

 queens are said also to store large 

 quantities of pollen. If put in a very 

 dry room combs of pollen will keep 

 for a long time, indeed, so far as I 

 know, indefinitely, for the lycopo- 

 dium powder sold by druggists is 

 nothing more than the spores of 

 club mosses. Why should not these 

 combs of pollen be offered for sale 

 like other bee supplies? The intro- 

 duction of a few of them into a hive 

 would often make a great difference 

 in the season's results. We need to 



know more about the quantity of 

 pollen a colony requires, and its re- 

 lation to the economy of the bees 

 and the gathering of the nectar. 



Fig. 6. SUNFLOWER (Hcliaitthus animus.) 

 Each morning two circles of florets bloom.- ■ 

 so that it remains in blossom a long time. 

 Notice the little masses of pollen on top of 

 the flowers. 



There are many problems relating to 

 pollen and pollen plants that will 

 well repay investigation. 



Waldboro, Maine. 



The Missouri Meeting. — The meet- 

 ing of the Missouri Apicultural So- 

 ciety was held at Columbia during 

 Farmers' Week. The weather was 

 most unfavorable with extremely cold 

 weather following a heavy snowfall. 

 Trains were late, and some were an- 

 nulled entirely. As a result, many 

 were discouraged from attending. 

 However, the program was carried 

 out substantially as planned as 

 most of those who could not attend 

 sent their papers. Since a number of 

 the men who have been most active 

 in the affairs of the association were 

 unable to be present, it was decided 

 to retain the present officers until a 

 time when they could attend. Prof. 

 L. Haseman resigned as secretary and 

 the place was filled by selecting Mr. 

 A. V. Small, of St. Joseph. 



Mr. E. M. Atkins, one of the men 

 engaged in emergency work in the 

 Bureau of Entomology, was present. 

 He has been assigned to Missouri, 

 Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa and will 

 divide his time between the four 

 States. Plans are under way for some 

 field meetings to be held next sum- 

 mer. A special feature of the meet- 

 ing which attracted much attention 

 from short course visitors, was a bee 

 demonstration in a cage by Mr. E. E. 

 Tyler. A talk on Using Honey to 

 Save Sugar, by Miss Louise Stanley, 

 of the college staff, attracted a num- 

 ber of ladies who were in attendance 

 on other meetings held at the college 

 at the same time. 



Mr. George O. Shinji gave an in- 

 teresting account of beekeeping in 

 Japan to an appreciative audience. 

 Taken altogether, the meeting was 

 well worth while, in spite of the ex- 

 treme weather. 



