128 MONEY IN" BEES IN AUSTRALASIA 



dried form may possibly be utilised, but in the natural 

 condition will soon sour and disgust the bees. White of 

 egg is open to the objection of not keeping, but consider- 

 able success has been reported with it in combination with 

 pea-flour. The apiarist discovering plenty of eggs all 

 failing to hatch after the normal 3 days has expired had 

 better prepare a pollen substitute on the lines indicated, 

 even if the article supplied is not quite as good as natural 

 pollen. Half a loaf, it should be recognised, is better than 

 no bread. 



There are rare cases (encountered at long intervals) 

 when the eggs of certain queens fail to hatch. No amount 

 of food, however rich, will overcome the phenomenon. 

 The queen is defective in some way and should be 

 destroyed, for it is impossible to remedy it. It is not this 

 class that the author has in mind. There are times when 

 the absence of pollen is so acute that the bees are unable 

 to prepare the necessary milky food, and consequently 

 there is no larval development. 



The following food has been tried in a small way, with 

 great success, but at present it is rather premature to 

 advise its wholesale use. The author intends to give this 

 food an exhaustive trial, and will then be in a better posi- 

 tion to judge of its effectiveness when handled in a large 

 commercial way. Eecipe — Take two cups df sugar (l.A. 

 crj'stal) with enough water to moisten it, add half a pinch 

 of cream of tartar, and boil for ten minutes. Prepare 

 the white of two eggs beaten to a froth, pour in the syrup, 

 and stir until cold. It will then have a fine white grained 

 appearance similar to the fondant inside chocolate-cream 

 confectionery. The grub must have flesh-forming food 

 (proteid-albumen) and heat-producing food. The life of 

 the bee is a constant search after nitrogen, and since the 

 grub must store uj) enough "vitality" to carry out its 

 life's work the quality of the food constitutes the pre- 

 ponderating influence. 



