264 
Beekeeping 
on their legs, just as they do pollen, and will carry it to the 
hive. There are also reports of coal dust being carried in 
this way. After observing bees carry in rye flour from a 
neighboring mill, Dzierzon put some in the apiary where the 
bees could get it readily and they carried it in eagerly. It is 
still held by many beekeepers that bees should be given rye 
flour or pea, oat or corn meal in the spring, these being 
considered more suitable foods than wheat flour. These 
substitutes are chemically not very similar to pollen, and 
observations as to the effects of them on the development 
of the brood are badly needed. In fact, it can scarcely be 
said that we know that the giving of substitutes for pollen 
is serviceable in brood-rearing, and one cannot but wonder 
what Dzierzon’s advice would have been if his apiary had 
been near a coal mine. Because of the unusual things that 
bees do, we are not justified in concluding that the giving 
of substitutes for pollen is useless, however, and no harmful 
results are recorded from the practice. It is a promising 
field for study, for there is sometimes a scarcity of pollen just 
when it is most needed. 
