CHAPTER XI. BEE-BREAD. THIS is the pollen or farina of flowers. Bees can with great ease gather it, and carry it home in pellets sticking to their hind legs. Some writers say that every bee is furnished with two baskets in which this pollen is carried home. Of course the colour is different in different kinds of flowers. Bees do not change its colour. Anciently it was considered crude wax, and even now many think it is made into wax. It is not capable of being made into wax. It is used principally for feeding maggots in their cells, and hence it is termed bee-bread. If it were required for the building of combs, swarms put into empty hives would gather much of it; but we find that all such swarms do not gather any pollen for some days, or till combs are built to contain it. After some combs are built, the bees are seen returning with pellets on their legs. In most hives it is stored in their centres where the young are hatched, and too often there is stored up more than is required. If cells are filled, or half or quarter filled, with farina, they are useless for the time being for breeding purposes. Some seasons are remarkable for the abundance of it stored up, and some hives have more than others. It is never a scarce article, and the hive that has fewest cells filled or half filled with it, is generally the most prosperous,—all other things being equal. Three years ago we had a hive which we considered second to none. In the autumn previous it received a large swarm, and therefore was very populous. It was a large hive, and weighed about 50 lb. It was deemed the best hive in our possession. It lost but few bees during the winter. We expected an early swarm from it, but somehow it loitered behind the rest. It gathered three, four, and five pounds of honey a-day off the fruit-tree blossoms. Still it did not come up to the swarming point. At last we swarmed it before it was ready; and three weeks later we drove all the bees out of it into an empty hive. We then found the cause of its sluggish movements: four-fifths of the breeding combs were filled with farina or bee-bread. Pollen is mixed with honey and water when used in the feeding of young bees. And occasionally it may be mixed with wax in the manufacture of lids of cells. Bees do not eat it. They die of starvation with a superabundance of it in their hives. CHAPTER XII. PROPOLIS Is a kind of cement used in hives to fill up all holes and cracks, and prevent unnecessary ventilation. It is a substance not absolutely necessary to the wellbeing of a hive, but doubtless the bees derive benefit from using it, otherwise they would not collect it. It is a sort of resin or gum. A few ounces' weight, at most, is all that is found in the largest hive. It is generally considered that the bee-glue or propolis is collected from the buds of poplar and other trees, and also from the resin of old pine-wood exposed to the rays of the sun. Doubtless, trees wounded may yield some. It is a very much harder substance than either wax or bee-bread. CHAPTER XIII. WATER. A VERY great deal of water is carried into a hive in the height of the breeding season. It is used with bee-bread in feeding young bees. It is collected in dewy mornings, and after showers, from the blades of grass and the leaves of plants. In the absence of showers and dew, bees resort to brooks, rivers, and water-tubs for it. In dry seasons we have often seen them suck it out of the soil that has been artificially watered. It has been a marvel to us how speedily they scented the water falling from the water-can into the soil. Bees do not store it up; they seem to act on the conviction that "sufficient for the day is the supply of water." The sight of bees seeking and sipping water, is a proof that breeding is going on in their hives. During inclement weather, when not a particle of honey can be obtained, bees often venture out for water. Mr Quinby thinks that much water is necessary in comb-building. Bees placed in a dark cellar, he says, have been known to raise brood without water. This may be true; but probably the bees used the moisture condensed on the insides of their hives, Mr Quinby's hives being made of wood. If Mr Quinby were to try the experiment, he would find that bees can build combs in great quantity without water, in a dark cellar, more readily than they hatch brood there. In spring months water is extensively used in hives, and long before combbuilding commences. |