MANUAL OF THE APIARY. Ill 



carded, for if composed of worker-cells, it is still very valuable 

 for breeding purposes, and should not be destroyed till the 

 cells are too small for longer service, which will not occur till 

 after many years of use. The function, then, of the wax, is 

 to make comb, and caps for the honey-cells, and, combined 

 with pollen, to form queen-cells (Fig. 28, d) and caps for the 

 brood-cells. (See Appendix, page 301). 



POLLEN, OR BEE-BREAD. 



An ancient Greek author states that in Hymettus the bees 

 tied little pebbles to Jheir legs to hold them down. This 

 fanciful conjecture probably arose from seeing the pollen balls 

 on the bees' legs. 



Even such scientists as Reaumur, Bonnet, Swammerdam, 

 and many apiarists of the last century, thought they saw in 

 these pollen-balls the source of wax. But Huber, John 

 Hunter, Duchet, Wildman, and others, noticed the presence 

 and function of the wax-pellets already described, and were 

 aware that the pollen served a different purpose. 



This substance, like honey, is not secreted, nor manufac- 

 tured by the bees, only collected. The bees usually obtain 

 it from the stamens of flowers. But if they gain access to 

 flour when there is no bloom, they will take this in lieu of 

 pollen, in which case the former term used above becomes a 

 misnomer, though usually the bee-bread consists almost 

 wholly of pollen. 



As already intimated, the pollen is conveyed in the pollen- 

 baskets (Fig. 22, p) of the posterior legs, to which it is con- 

 veyed by the other legs, and compressed into little oval 

 masses. The motions in this conveyance are exceedingly 

 rapid. The bees not infrequently come to the hives, not only 

 ■with replete pollen-baskets, but with their whole under surface 

 thoroughly dusted. Dissection will also show that the same 

 bee may have her sucking stomach distended with honey. 

 Thus the bees make the most of their opportunities. It is a 

 curious fact, noticed even by Aristotle, that the bees, during 

 any trip, gather only a single kind of pollen, or only gather 

 from one species of bloom. Hence, while different bees may 

 have different colors of 'pollen, the pellets of bee-bread on 

 any single bee will be uniform in color throughout. It is 



