MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 165the meal down level, change the stone to the other side. Theywill dig out all the fine parts, and the coarser parts that are leftcan be fed to the four-legged stock. But just as soon as they canget the natural pollen they will desert the meal-boxes.Q. Why is it that in your telling of the use of rye-flour andpea rneal for artificial pollen, you never mention wheat flour?Why is wheat flour never mentioned or recommended?A. It is probably a case of blindly following tradition. Myguess would be that wheat is as good as rye; but I never triedeither. I know that ground corn and oats do well. Flour isgood also.Q. Will you kindly advise me what to do with extractingcombsthat are filled with pollen? Many of mine are so cloggedwith pollen that I will be compelled to melt them unless thereis some way of getting it out.A. I'm just a bit suspicious that the trouble is not so bad asyou suppose, and that if you leave the pollen where it is it willbe used up by the bees next year, always supposing it is kept ingood condition over winter. It often happens that such pollen isworth more than its weight in honey early in the season. If, however,you want to get the pollen out of the comb some, other waythan to have the bees eat it out, I'm not sure that I know of anygood way. I have known pollen to dry up in the combs so itwould shake out.Q. Will the bees remove pollen from the center combs in thebrood-chamber so the queen can have a compact circle to lay in,the combs being filled by queenless bees, caused by the queenbeing lost in mating? The pollen is fresh, and the cells abouthalf full.A. Yes, give them time enough and you will find the pollen allout of the middle of the brood-nest, if the queen is prolific.Q. What can I do to prevent bees from storing pollen in thesections?A. I know of three things that will encourage pollen andbrood in sections. One is to have the brood-chamber too smalland crowded. A second is to have very little or no drone-combin the brood-chamber and small starters in the sections. In thatcase the bees will build more or less drone-comb in the sections,the queen will go up for the sake of laying in drone-cells, andpollen will follow the brood. A third is to have shallow combsin the brood-chamber. In that case there is danger of pollen insections even without any brood in them. Evidently, to avoid