THE APIARY. 
403 
ing their sweets, had this been done in the natural 
manner. What an absolute refutation this to those 
who assert that bees never eat pollen — a guess utterly 
at variance with all scientific theories ! The hive, late 
as was the season, went along splendidly, raising great 
breadths of brood, and receiving its pea-flour as occasion 
demanded. Good as were the results, and important 
as is the teaching, a caution is needed. Pea-flour thus 
given must be mixed with sugar carefully inverted — that 
is, changed into dextrose and levulose by boiling with 
acid — or honey must be employed ; and even then, 
that which is not quickly consumed is so dried of its 
sugary matters that it becomes too hard for use by 
the nurses, and has to be removed at considerable 
labour to the bees. In the few cases in which it 
would pay for adoption, the plan, judiciously carried 
out, is doubtless most serviceable. 
We have not exhausted the menu of Mistress Apis, 
for both the dairy and the hen-house have been made 
to contribute nitrogenous aliment for her support 
under the trying duties of wet nurse to a numerous 
offspring. Herr Hilbert was the first to use milk, and 
subsequently egg, concentrated nitrogenous foods, both, 
but especially the latter, largely yielding the very 
material for building up animal tissue ; for, during 
incubation, the albumen of the egg is converted into 
every part of the body of the chick. He recommends 
that they be given in early spring, and discontinued 
when natural pollen becomes abundant. The milk 
he boils with a considerable amount of sugar, and 
feeds in a tray-feeder beneath the frames. I have 
given it in a simple bottle, and have used about i pint 
2 D 2 
