396 DISPUTED USE OF POLLED. 



quantity which has been carried daily and hourly, and we 

 may add momentarily, into the hive ? It has not formed any 

 part of the food of the community ; it has not been appor- 

 tioned to the nourishment of the brood, for as yet there has 

 not been any to nourish : let him, however, kill half a dozen 

 of the bees, and he will find the pollen in the second stomach 

 of the bee in a state of elaboration, and in some of them in a 

 state of readiness to be worked into wax. One of the chief 

 arguments against this use of pollen is, that the bees are 

 seen to carry it in great quantity into those hives, the 

 combs of which are completed, and thence the deduction is 

 made, that as the bees do not require it for wax, they must 

 apply it to some other purpose, or, in other words, that it 

 cannot be the element of wax. We confess that we never 

 could comprehend the intent of the bees in amassing such a 

 large quantity of a material, of which apparently they do not 

 make any use ; and it is further an undisputed point, that the 

 older the hive, the more intent the bees appear to be in the 

 amassing of it. It is also a curious fact, that the bees seem to 

 be so conscious of its liability to corruption, that they never 

 entirely fill a cell with it, but having half filled it, they, for 

 the purpose of excluding the air from it, fill the remainder 

 with honey. It must, however, be admitted, that the objec- 

 tion loses a great deal of its force, when it is considered that 

 the pollen, not being elaborated into wax, is found in its 

 crude state in the hive, but that whilst the process of wax- 

 making is going on, none whatever is found. Huber in 

 one place describes the pollen as the food of the bees, as 

 well as the aliment of the brood, but in the great number of 

 hives that we have seen perish in the winter for want of 

 food, there has always been found a considerable quantity 

 of pollen or bee-bread, and therefore it may be considered as 

 an incontrovertible fact, that it forms no part of the susten- 

 ance of the bee. 



If, however, we examine the theory of Huber a little 



