1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



129 



cover. At present heavy boxes are 

 taken up with block and tackle. 



It will be seen by the illustration 

 that a large percentage of the out- 

 side wall space is glass. This abund- 

 ance of light relieves the depressing 

 effect which indoor work so often 

 has. It also allows machinery to be 

 placed or supers to be oiled wherever 

 convenient, regardless of the location 

 of windows. The ceiling downstairs 

 is 9 feet in the clear and all win- 

 dows will be screened, giving plenty 

 of air. 



(To be concluded). 



Table IX.— Result of the Analysis of 

 Samples of Pollen 



rt.g 



= '<' 



The Nutrition of the Honeybee 



By R. Adams Dutcher. 



Division of Agricultural Biochemis- 

 try, University of Minnesota. 



(Continued from March number). 



HONEYDEW. the other material 

 from which honey is made, is 

 found on leaves of trees and 

 shrubs and is supposed to be ex- 

 creted or rejected by plant lice which 

 feed upon a portion of the leaf sap. 

 Honeys made from this material are 

 generally considered inferior to 

 those made from floral nectar. Table 

 VII shows an analysis of honeydew 

 from the pine tree. 



Table VII 



Water 54.41 



Cane Sugar 8.16 



Invert Sugar 17.44 



Gums 19.19 



Comparison of nectar and honey- 

 dew analyses shows the honeydew to 

 be high in gummy materials which 

 are known to be digested with diffi- 

 culty by the bee. 



Honey, which makes up a very 

 large part of the bee dietary, has the 

 following composition: 



Table VIII. — The Composition of 

 Honey 



Per cent. 

 Water 17.00 



Invert Sugar 75.00 



Cane Sugar 1.90 



Dextrin (a gum) 1.80 



Protein .30 



Ash .18 



Undetermined (pollen, dirt, hair, 



etc.) . 3.68 



It is readily seen by examining 

 Table VIII that honey is a carbohy- 

 drate food composed almost entirely 

 of invert sugar and can furnish little 

 or no nitrogen for the building of 

 tissue. 



Another very important food for 

 tlie bee is pollen obtained during the 

 flowering season and deposited in 

 the comb as beebread. This bee- 

 bread is a storage material and is 

 drawn upon as needed for the feed- 

 ing of the queen and larva. It should 

 be noted that the worker bee eats 

 comparatively no pollen, but con- 

 fines herself to an almost protein- 

 free diet of honey. There is little 

 wonder that she lives but a few 

 weeks or months. The queen bee, 

 whose diet is very well balanced in 

 every way, lives for several years. 

 Table IX shows the protein content 

 of some Canadian pollens: 



Pollen from- 



Pct. Pet. Pet. 

 Yellow box and 



messmate 23.50 3.56 22.25 



Blue stringy bark- 25.15 4.39 27.43 



Messmate 20.80 4.29 26.81 



Black wattle, etc.- 24.25 3.87 24.18 



Cucumber 20.17 3.66 22.87 



Flat weed 22.80 2.77 17.31 



(Analyses of corn pollen made at 

 this laboratory show a protein con- 

 tent of 24.20 per cent.) 

 The Use of Food by the Honeybee 



From what has preceded we are 

 forced to conclude that food is used 

 by the bee for two purposes: (1) to 

 build protein tissues, and (2) to fur- 

 nish heat and energy. This explains 

 why the larva receive such large 

 quantities of pollen, for in the 

 brief space of 21 days all of the pro- 

 tein tissue of the bee's body is manu- 

 factured. The larva? are fairly 

 "stuffed" with nitrogenous food. The 

 same is true of the queen ; not only 

 is she required to repair old tissue, 

 but she is required to manufacture 

 thousands of eggs, and yet she lives 

 for several years. Her diet is highly 

 nitrogenous. Table X shows the com- 

 position of larval foods : 



Table X. — Composition of Larval 

 Foods 

 Drones. Workers. 



o c o c oo 



~ Og. 0% 02 &Z 



Protein 45.15 55.91 31.67 53.38 27.87 

 Fat — 13.55 11.90 4.74 8.38 3.69 

 Sugar.. 20.39 9.57 38.49 18.09 44.93 



(These results were obtained a 

 great many years ago and may not 

 be correct. However, they are com- 

 parable.) 



With these facts in mind certain 

 questions immediately present them- 

 selves. Can we lengthen the life of 

 the worker bee by insuring high pro- 

 tein larval food of the right type 

 when pollen supplies are low? Is 

 there any relationship between the 

 composition of the larval food and 

 the strength of the colony? Would 

 it be possible to feed the worker bee 

 a small quantity of easily digestible 

 protein material (in the honey or 

 syrup) which will not cause a large 

 accumulation of feces during the 

 winter months? Table IX shows 

 that pollens from different sources 

 vary in protein content and the ques- 

 tion might be raised, are all pollens 

 equally valuable for larval foods? 

 Can we find a cheap substitute for 

 pollen and bring on brood rearing 

 earlier, in order that we may have a 

 larger colony for work by the time 

 flowering season comes on? 



These and many other questions 



are being considered by the Divis- 

 ions of Bee Culture and Agricultural 

 Biochemistry at the University of 

 Minnesota, and preliminary experi- 

 ments are now being carried out 

 along these lines. From a practical 

 standpoint, it would be worth thou- 

 sands of dollars to the honey indus- 

 try to be able to put more bees and 

 stronger colonies into the field dur- 

 ing the honey season. 



At present honey and cane sugar 

 are the winter stores used for win- 

 tering bees, and it is known that 

 colonies often come out very weak 

 in the spring on such diets, especially 

 if the colony was composed largely 

 of old bees when going into winter 

 quarters. 



Analysis of the bee's body reveals 

 appreciable quantities of mineral ele- 

 ments, such as calcium, sulphur, 

 phosphorus, chlorine and other ele- 

 ments. Do these play an important 

 role? This question will be studied 

 also. 



We have one experimental colony 

 in a greenhouse which contains no 

 vegetation. These bees are being 

 fed honey and corn pollen. Analysis 

 of the pollen, beebread and larval 

 food should shed some light as to the 

 changes through which these import- 

 ant substances pass. 



Various substances for pollen have 

 been used with varying success. No 

 suggestions can be made at present 

 in this regard, but we have one col- 

 ony raising brood in the cellar at 

 this time (Dec 5) on a cane sugar 

 diet containing powdered casein, a 

 milk protein. Whether this is due 

 to the casein or reserve of pollen 

 stores remains to be seen. The mat- 

 ter of protein food for the honeybee 

 is of real practical importance, for 

 honey is an important article of food 

 in times of peace, and now that 

 sugar is not plentiful, the allies are 

 shipping loads of honey from this 

 and other countries to use as a sugar 

 substitute. One consignment alone 

 amounted to 2,000 tons. If we can 

 increase this amount ever so little. 

 we will have accomplished something 

 not only for the nation, but for the 

 honev industry. 



The Flowers of California 



By W. A. Ryal. 



I HOPE I may be excused for ap- 

 pearing a bit egotistical when I 

 refer to my past writings on the 

 honey-secreting flowers of California. 

 Having been brought up among trees 

 and plants (my father having been 

 one of the pioneer nurserymen and 

 fruit growers of this state), I nat- 

 urally grew up among garden sur- 

 roundings. And having been on 

 the place since the days of 1865, I, 

 too, learned about these insects when 

 I was a little fellow. And at an early 

 date I learned to investigate the 

 source of the nectar they brought to 

 the hives. This I was prompted to 

 do more especially as I had noticed 

 that some honey was much lighter 

 and finer flavored than other grades. 

 Then, after some years, I began to 

 read the periodical bee literature of 

 America and, I think, it was in 1876 



