398 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
vegetable fat, sulphur, phosphorus and potash. What- 
ever substance is chosen, a small handful for each pound 
of sugar may be stirred in. It has been supposed by 
some, that flour-cake is damaging to bees during winter. 
It is undesirable in the early winter months, unless the 
amount of nitrogenous matter it contains be small ; 
but, for reasons hereafter to be stated, I believe the 
moderate addition of about hoz. pea-flour to each pound 
of sugar to be a great advantage when candy is given 
as a resource during winter. 
Pollen substitutes (“artificial pollen”) may at cer- 
tain seasons be given in the open with advantage. 
The balance of the economy of the hive perhaps 
meets with some disturbance from the fact that we 
deprive the bees of honey, yet, as far as possible, avoid 
touching their pollen ; but a discriminating power on 
the part of the bee does much to restore the balance. 
The amount of this substance brought home somewhat 
depends upon the plant yielding the nectar (some 
labiate blossoms, e.g.^ so placing it that the bees 
cannot collect it on their legs), but more is determined 
by the needs of the stock. A swarm for the first few 
days gathers honey almost exclusively ; but as eggs 
begin to hatch, high-heaped pellets are constantly borne 
in, and deposited in the neighbourhood of the larvae 
for the use of the nurses. But it is not true, as some 
have stated, that queenless stocks carry no pollen, and 
by this may be known ; they invariably take a restricted 
amount. Sometimes, in the early spring, the lack of 
“bee-bread” seriously reduces the brood-producing 
capacity of a colony. Especially will this be true 
of those that have been nursed into strength by 
