370 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
Dec 1 . 
over, I remove the old hive, and put a new one in its 
place. 
The most convenient way to take up these boxes or 
caps, is to remove them in the evening', or early morn¬ 
ing - , carry them a few rods distant from the bee-house, 
turn them bottom upwards upon the "ground, and put 
over them a large box, such as is used to carry dry 
goods in, having - a small hole or two, or a crack in the 
top. After the sun is up, and it has become so warm 
that the bees will fly, you may punch the box of bees 
with a stick, arid if you please, occasionally lift the 
large box upon one side, when the bees in great num¬ 
bers will escape and return to their old habitation, 
where an empty box should be previously placed to 
receive them. 
There is some difficulty in expelling the bees from 
an old and deep hive, which has been their chief habi¬ 
tation. They are not easily driven out by the process 
above described. I have known two methods to effect 
this; one is to put the hive bottom upwards, in a tub, 
and turn in water, and thus drive them out; the other 
is to split the hive open with an axe; cover them with 
a large box, and drive them out, after they are van¬ 
quished, as described, in driving them out of the small 
boxes. But of the success of these methods I cannot 
speak from my own experience. 
Yours, &e., E. D. Andrews. 
Armadee, Mich., 1846. 
Remarks. —It will be noticed that in tne above com¬ 
munication, our correspondent advances the idea that 
honey is composed of two substances—the pollen and the 
nectar of flowers. The idea is new to us, but may, not¬ 
withstanding, be correct. There are, undoubtedly, 
many things yet to be learned in the economy of bees, 
and we think the subject of Mr. Andrews’ theory de¬ 
serves investigation. 
We have turned to some authorities to see what is 
the generally received opinion in regard to the compo¬ 
sition of honey. 
Liebig, in his Animal Chemistry, speaks particular¬ 
ly in regard to the production of wax from honey. He 
holds that wax may be formed from honey, without 
any other substance; and the argument which ho de¬ 
signed to draw from this was, that in the animal econo¬ 
my, fatty matter may be formed from sugar—a theory 
in opposition to that held by Boussingault and Dumas, 
that fat could only be assimilated from oil ready formed 
in the food. But Liebig remarks— 
44 In order to produce wax in the manner described, 
the bees require no pollen, but only honey.” 
This is sufficient to show that he believed pollen un¬ 
necessary for the formation of honey. He adds— 
“I cannot, therefore, believe that pollen furnishes 
food for the bees, but I think they only swallow it, in 
order, by mixing it with honey and water, to prepare 
the liquid food for the grubs.” 
The use of pollen in preparing food for the young 
bees, or larvie, is then, according to Liebig, the only 
purpose to which it is devoted. 
fH Bevan speaks more fully in regard to the composition 
of honey, as will be seen from the following extract: 
44 In the Philosophical Transactions for 1792, Mr. 
Hunter has stated, that whatever time the honey bags 
may be retained, they still remain pure and unal¬ 
tered by the digestive process. M. Polhill, a gentle¬ 
man to whom the public are indebted for several arti¬ 
cles in Rees’s Cyclopedia appertaining to bees, is also 
of this opinion. Messrs. Kirby and Spence do not ad¬ 
mit this statement; as the nectar of flowers is not of so 
thick a consistence as honey, they think it must undergo 
some change in the stomach of the bee. They are coun¬ 
tenanced in this opinion by Swammerdam and Reaumur: 
the latter has observed that if there was a deficiency of 
flowers at the season of honey-gathering, and the bees 
were furnished with sugar, they filled their cells with 
honey differing in no other respect from honey collect¬ 
ed in the usual way, but in its possessing a somewhat 
higher flavor, and in its never candying, nor even 
losing its fluidity by lono--keeping. The same has 
been observed when they imbibe the juices of sweet 
fruits, for bees do not confine themselves solely to flow¬ 
ers and honey-dewed leaves: they will sometimes very 
greedily absorb the juice of raspberries, for instance, 
and thus spoil them for the table: they also visit in 
crowds the vats of the cider and wine maker. The 
naturalists just named, highly and deservedly as they 
are celebrated, are not borne out in then* opinions ei- 
‘ ther by my own experiments, or by those of apiarian 
correspondents. We have each tried supplying bees 
with syrup of sugar as a resource for winter, without 
finding any material change in it after it was stored. 
It might be clearer, but no other difference whatever 
was perceptible. 
44 Reaumur has likewise remarked that in each honey¬ 
cell there is a cream-like layer or covering of a thicker 
consistence ’ than the honey itself, which apparently 
serves to retain the more liquid collections that are 
from time to time introduced under it. Messrs. Kirby 
and Spence say, that if honey were the unaltered nec¬ 
tar of flowers, it would be difficult to conceive how 
this cream could be collected in proper proportions. 
This observation is made in consequence of their pre¬ 
suming that some of this cream-like covering is con¬ 
veyed into the cells with each deposition of fresh honey; 
and it has been supposed that this cream was the last por¬ 
tion disgorged. According to an article in Rees's Cy¬ 
clopedia, probably written by Mr. Polhill, this eream- 
like matter is formed at the very first and every addition 
of honey is deposited beneath it. The bee, entering 
into the cell as deeply as possible, puts forward its ante¬ 
rior pair of legs, and with them pierces a hole through 
the crust or cream; while this hole is kept open by the 
feet, the bee disgorg-es the honey in drops from its 
mouth; these passing into the hole, mix with the 
mass beyond; the bee, before it flies off, new-models 
the crust, and closes up the hole. This mode of pro¬ 
ceeding is regularly adopted by every bee that contri¬ 
butes to the general store.” [See Bevan on the Honey 
Bee, pp. 263, 264.] 
The same author speaks in another place in refer¬ 
ence to pollen and its use by the bees. He says— 
44 This substance was once erroneously supposed to 
be the prime constituent of wax; but the experiments 
of Hunter and Huber have proved that wax is a secre¬ 
tion from the bodies of wax-working bees, and that the 
principal purpose for which they collect pollen is to 
nourish the embryo bees. Huber was the first to sug¬ 
gest this idea, and it well accords with what we ob¬ 
serve among other parts of the animal kingdom;—birds, 
for instance, feed their young with different food from 
what they take themselves. Mr. Hunter examined the 
stomachs of the maggot bees, and found farina in all, 
but not a particle of honey in any of them. Huber con¬ 
siders the pollen as undergoing a peculiar elaboration 
in the stomachs of the bees, to be fitted for the nutri¬ 
ment of the larvse.” 
Huish, a close, and in general, accurate observer, 
describes honey as— 44 a gummy, saccharine, fermen¬ 
tative juice, one of the immediate principles of vege¬ 
tables, and which has received a particular elabo¬ 
ration in the stomach of the bees. It is in this labora¬ 
tory that it assumes that viscidity and consistency, 
which it did not possess in its natural state, and also 
that peculiarity of fragrance and taste by which it is so 
essentially distinguished.” * * * 44 The question has 
been long disputed amongst naturalists, regarding the 
elaboration which honey undergoes in the stomach of 
the bee; and whilst some maintain that it undergoes a 
decided alteration, others affirm that it is deposited by 
them in the cells in the same state that it is extracted 
from the flowers. The latter hypothesis, is however, 
in a great degree invalidated by the circumstance, that 
the flavor and taste of the saccharine juice in the nec- 
tarium of the flowers are decidedly different, as may be 
ascertained by sucking the pips of the cowslip, and 
those of the white or red clover; whereas, when these 
same juices are deposited in the cells of the bee, they 
have acquired one uniform taste and fragrance, which 
they did not possess in their natural state, as well as a 
