WINTER FOOD FOR BEES. 



107 



substitution of other combs for those coiitainin;;- pollen. But good col- 

 onies sljould begin brood rearing in January or February, and i)ollen or 

 a suitable substitute for it containing nitrogen must then be present 

 or the nurse bees will be subjected to a fearful drain on their vitality 

 to supply the rich nitrogenous secretion required by the develoi)ing 

 larviej in fact, they can not do so long, and tlie colony dwindles. This 

 absurd theory that bees can not have access to pollen in winter without 

 detrimental results can best be answered by referring to the well-known 

 fiict that a colony in a large box or straw hive, freely ventilated, yet 

 having some part of the hive protected from drafts of air and kei)t dry, 

 will almost invariably come out strong in the spring if populous in the 

 fall, heavy with honey, and having a young and vigorous queen. The 



Fig. 71.— Percolator for preparation of winter food. (Original.) 



pollen, it c(mld not i)ossibly be claimed, had been injurious to such 

 colonies, although they always gather and store it without restriction, 

 and are not disturbed in the possession of it. In truth, their stores of 

 pollen have constituted an im})ortaut factor in their develoi)ment, and 

 the strong instinct which they have toward making accunuilations of 

 pollen for winter use and which they have exercised for thousands 

 of years undisturbed is of great benefit to them. 



Other conditions being equal, those colonies having the most honey 

 stored compactl}' in the brood apartment and close about the very 

 center where the last brood of young bees should enuMge. are the ones 

 which will Minter best. Forty ])ounds for a noithern latitude and -H) 

 in the middle sections of the Fnited states inav be considered onlv a 



