WINTER FOOD FOR BEES. 
107 
substitution of other combs for those containing pollen. But good col- 
onies should begin brood rearing in January or February, and pollen or 
a suitable substitute for it containing nitrogen most 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 developing 
larva'; in fact, they can not do so long, and the 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 
fact 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 kept 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 
T 
~ 
7 
Fig. 71. — Percolator for preparation of winter food. (Original.) 
pollen, it could not possibly 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 important factor in their development, and 
the strong instinct which they have toward making accumulations 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 compactly in the brood apartment and close about the very 
center where the last brood of young bees should emerge, an- the ones 
which will winter best. Forty pounds for a northern latitude and 30 
in the middle sections of the Tinted States may be considered only a 
