ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 229 



the discovery that unbolted rye flour will answer so admirably 

 as a substitute for pollen, we can supply the bees not only 

 with honey, when none can be gathered from the blossoms, 

 but with an abundance of bee-bread, when pollen is scarce. 

 As I am writing this chapter, (March 29, 1853,) my bees 

 are zealously engaged in taking flour from some old combs 

 in front of their hives, and can be seen most beautifully 

 moulding the little pellets on their thighs. By my moveable 

 combs I can give them the flour, at once, in their hives, as it 

 can easily be rubbed into an empty comb. The importance 

 of Dzierzon's discovery of a substitute for pollen, can hardly 

 be over-estimated. If he had done nothing more for Apia- 

 rian science, no true-hearted bee-keeper would ever allow 

 his name to be forgotten. 



In the Chapter on Feeding, I shall give more specific di- 

 rections as to the way in which the cultivator must feed his 

 bees, when he aims at increasing, as rapidly as possible, the 

 number of his stocks. Unless this work is done with great 

 judgment, he will often find that the more he feeds, the 

 fewer bees he has in his hives, the cells being all occupied 

 with honey instead of brood. Such is the passion of bees 

 for storing away honey, that large supplies will always most 

 seriously interfere with breeding, unless there are enough 

 bees to build new comb, in which the queen can find room 

 for her eggs. 



I have no doubt that some who have not much experience 

 in the management of bees, are ready to imagine that they 

 can easily strike out a simpler and better way of increasing 

 the number of colonies. For instance : let a full hive have 

 half its comb and bees put into an empty one, and the work 

 of doubling, is without further trouble, effectually accom- 

 plished. But what will the queenless hive do, under such 

 circumstances.? Why, build of course, queen cells, and 

 20 



