POLLEN 
664 
contains honey, and, when that is con¬ 
sumed, they will die of starvation, altho 
there may be an abundance of pollen in 
the combs. The less specialized solitary 
bees, however, belonging to the g’enera 
Prosopis, Halictus and Andrena, have been 
observed to feed on both pollen and nec¬ 
tar. There are also highly specialized 
genera of beetles and flies, which, like the 
honeybee, live wholly on nectar, while the 
more primitive species consume both kinds 
of floral food. If honeybees are confined 
and fed only on sugar syrup they will live 
for a long time, build comb, and, since 
they void no excrement, will not require a 
flight in the open air, but they will rear no 
brood. Pollen is a necessity for the life of 
often may be seen in large numbers re¬ 
sorting to sawdust heaps, and collecting 
tine particles of wood, which contain a cer¬ 
tain amount of nitrogenous matter. They 
also gather at times the spores of fungi, 
which are very similar in composition to 
pollen grains. In Michigan they have been 
reported as gathering loads of fine black 
earth from the swamps, and they have been 
known to collect even coal dust. The owner 
of a cheese factory states that one day bees 
were observed hovering over the shelves in 
the cheese-room, and, as their numbers in¬ 
creased, they were found to be packing on 
their legs the fine dust that had accumu¬ 
lated from handling the cheese. Micro¬ 
scopic examination showed this dust was 
Masses of pollen taken from legs of bees. These were photographed with a thimble to 
show the relative size. 
the colony, and it is for this reason that 
honeybees are equipped with the elaborate 
apparatus described above, and gather it 
so diligently from spring till fall. In stor¬ 
ing pollen preference is given to the cells 
immediately surrounding the brood. In 
very late fall it is common to find large 
quantities of pollen packed firmly in 
cells but not protected in any way; in 
other cases it is covered with honey and 
the cell capped over. To provide suffi¬ 
cient pollen is a vital problem to both bees 
and beekeepers. 
I 
SUBSTITUTES FOR POLLEN. 
In the absence of flowers honeybees will 
gather many other substances as substi¬ 
tutes for pollen. In early spring they 
embryo cheese-mites, so that the bees had 
actually been using animal food as pollen, 
and living animals at that. 
At times also when there is a scarcity of 
pollen bees will raid barns, stables, and 
chicken-houses to obtain bran or meal. 
There have been numerous reports of their 
invading the premises of farmers, stinging 
the cattle and driving them out of the sta¬ 
bles and causing general annoyance. This 
difficulty may be remedied easily by sup¬ 
plying them with a quantity of rye meal. 
As it has been known for many years that 
in springtime bees will use the flour or 
meal of different kinds of grain, Many bee¬ 
keepers believe that they can feed substi¬ 
tutes for pollen to advantage. Usually 
they resort to rye meal, cottonseed meal, 
