58 Bee-heepiiifi in \'ic/uriii. 



incapable of voluntary motion, nature employs various agents, such as 

 wind, water, birds, and insects, to convey the pollen from the male to 

 the female organ. The pollen grains of the flowers of different plants 

 vary considerably in shape and chaiacter, and in numbers. Thus, 

 while wind-fertilized plants, such- as pines and grasses, produce enormous 

 numbers of j.ollen grains, which have little or no means of cohesion, 

 are earned away and scattered by air currents like dust, the jjollen 

 grains of insect-fertilized flowers are sticky, as in the case of Eucalypts, 

 connected with each other by viscid threads, as in some plants of the 

 heath family; or are covered witlr spines, as in many composite flowers — 

 Cape Weed, Dandelion, &c. By these means, the pollen grains become 

 attached to insects visiting the flowers, and are tlius conveyed from the 

 anther to the pistil of the same flower, or of another flower of the same 

 species on a different [.lant, thus efftcting fertilizaticn and cross- 

 jiolliuatiou. 



In tile fertilization of most cultivated economic ]ilants, the honey 

 bee is the most iiiij.ortant of the insect agents, on account of its habits, 

 its structure, and ils continuous need of nitrogen. Pollen is the only 

 source of nitrogen available to the bee; without pollen, no reproduction 

 can take place, not a single bee larva can be reared without pollen, or 

 a substitute of it. The nitrogen cf polleu is, in the form of jjrotein, 

 present in cpiantities cf 17 to 27 per cent. 



In the economy of the bee hive, pollen is equal in importance with 

 nectar; for while honey is a complete' food for the adult bee during 

 inactivity, nitrogenous food is required, not only for the rearing of 

 young bees, but for the conversion of the nectar into lioney. The 

 larval food and the enzyme, which causes the inversion of the sugars of 

 nectar, are both animal secretions of the bee, with nitrogen as their base- 

 Owing to the climatic conditions of many parts of Australia, pollen 

 famines occur periodically witli detrimental and sometimes serious results 

 to the bee-keeping industry. Unfortunately, no substitute for pollen, 

 satisfactory under our peculiar climatic conditions, is so far known. 

 Some measure of success has been obtained by the feeding of powdered 

 akim milk, but it amounts to little more than saving the colonies from 

 extinction, or tiding theiu over a short period of dearth, much in the 

 way that farm animals are kept alive by the feeding of straw. 



When the detrimental influence of pollen famines is more fully 

 realized by honey-produc:r&, ?teps will perhaps be taken to inaugurate 

 systematic, .scientific researches and eyperiments to investigate the 

 inter-relation between abnormal bee mortality and dearth of pollen, and 

 to find suitable substitutes for pollen. 



The natural honey resources of Australia are so good, and the normal 

 climatic conditions so favorable to bee culture, that the solution of the 

 problems due to abnormal periodical climatic conditions would, from a 

 national point of view, be highly reproductive. 



XIII. — The Rearing of Queen Bees. 



The selection of a queen from which to breed for the purpose of super- 

 seding old or inferior queens, or the queens of colonies showing a predis- 

 position to disease, viciousness or some other undesirable trait, is not only 

 of the greatest importance but also a most difficult problem. 



