18 
HEE-CULTURE. 
dandelion, pumpkin, and many other kinds of flowers. Rees 
serve an important end here in carrying pollen on their 
bodies from flower to flower, thus making them fertile and 
crossing the varieties. In this there is a notable adaptation 
of means to ends in the Divine economy, that, apparently to 
preserve the integrity of each species of plants, a bee will 
always complete its load from whatever plant it commences 
on, regardless of the scarcity of the flowers on which it com- 
mences or the abundance of others around them. They col- 
lect their pollen in little pellets or balls on the sides of their 
legs, and when it is dry they carry an additional portion by 
dusting it over their bodies. Bees eat a small portion of bee- 
bread themselves, but it is mainly used for feeding their 
brood, and is always placed in close proximity to the brood, 
so that the bee-keeper who wishes his table honey free from 
bee-bread must havo it made as far as possible from the 
brood. 
Bees can subsist during winter and spring without bee- 
bread ; but they do not seem to prosper nearly as well. Rye, 
or even wheat flour, may be fed advantageously to bees in 
the spring, before they arc able to collect it from natural 
sources. Place the flour in shallow boxes, set in the sun- 
shine, in a calm place, near the bees, where they will delight 
to roll themselves in it. 
PROPOLIS. 
Propolis is a kind of paste or bee glue, used by the bees to 
glue cracks in their hives. Their hives arc sometimes almost 
lined with it. Hives are sometimes so glued to their stand 
that it requires considerable force to remove them. It seems 
to be gathered from the buds of various kinds of trees, as the 
balm-of-gilead, poplar, &c. When bees have access to newly 
varnished furniture, they will collect varnish for tho same 
purpose. The fact that bees have sometimes been known 
to alight on the coffins of their keepers, has doubtless given 
rise to the superstition that they are aware of his death and 
have thus joined the family in mourning his departure. 
nONEY-COMB. 
Combs are used for storing honey, for nests for the young, 
and as a warm harbor for the bees in winter. It Is not made of 
