. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. May 4, 1899. AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 277 ticed the bees putting- their tongues tog-ether as they do when bees feed the queen, this thing- being continued till nearly all the pollen -was used up, -which lasted for several days, when it came good weather again, so new supplies were gathered. From these observations I formed the opinion that old bees partake of pollen only in the form of chyme, and that this chyme is prepared onlj' when there is, or has been, brood lately in the hive. I have thus wandered to show that pollen can become a factor in our prob
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. May 4, 1899. AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 277 ticed the bees putting- their tongues tog-ether as they do when bees feed the queen, this thing- being continued till nearly all the pollen -was used up, -which lasted for several days, when it came good weather again, so new supplies were gathered. From these observations I formed the opinion that old bees partake of pollen only in the form of chyme, and that this chyme is prepared onlj' when there is, or has been, brood lately in the hive. I have thus wandered to show that pollen can become a factor in our problem of win- tering of bees, only in connection with brood-rearing, and that, where no brood-rearing is carried on, pollen can have nothing to do with the so-called disease—bee-diarrhea ; and the result of the past winter, during which many colonies have had the diarrhea, onlj' add strength to former opin- ions. But to return. That the larval bee subsists -wholly on this chyme, or creamy food, I think no one will deny ; and if from m3- ob- servations I am correct, the larg-est element in this food is pollen. As the larva absorbs this food the grosser part of the pollen forms itself into the yellow streak seen in the larva; when taken out of the comb, but most plainly in the drone-larv;e, which streak is finally enclosed by the intes- tines of the newlv-hatcht bee, and evacuated on its first flight. If I had time it might be interesting to digress here again, and tell how I have found, by experimenting, that ewly-hatcht bees which have not had a cleansing flight are practically worthless to ship with queens long distances, and that I always avoid, as far as may be, catching such bees when sending queens to Australia and other distant countries, because they are liable to daub the queen and cages with their excrement, or die from over-distended abdomens; but I will not take the time here. To show that I am not alone in the belief that larval bees eat pollen, I wish to give the t
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
