White clover honey is esteemed the best for table and exhibition purposes, for its purity of colour, fineness of grain, and mild flavour. At the other extreme is heather honey--dark in colour, strong in flavour, and a texture so thick that it will not "run"; so thick, indeed, that it is impossible to extract or strain it by the ordinary methods. As a rule it is usually pressed from the combs. =Pollen.=--The bee uses pollen for a variety of purposes--for feeding the pupae, as food for the older bees when honey is scarce or the stores diminishing, and for mixing with wax to seal the brood cells. "Bee-bread" is therefore a good name for it, although primarily its purpose is not to serve the bees at all. Of an infinite variety of colour and flavour--each flower produces its own variety in both particulars--the pollen gathered by the bees is stored in the hive strictly with its own kind. It has been found that a bee visiting, say, clover, does not touch another kind of flower on that "round," and so on. And each section of the workers store their particular pollen in particular cells. The young worker bee is usually well covered with hairs which serve to gather up the pollen from the flowers visited. Leaving a flower powdered over with it she scrapes it from her body into the pollen baskets on the thighs of her hind pair of legs. Discharged at the hive, the pollen is kneaded by the jaws and head and stored in the cells, where it is covered with honey to preserve it. As the bee gets older the body-hairs are gradually worn away so that as time passes the worker becomes a honey-gatherer almost entirely. CHAPTER VI =Hints on Working the Bees= =Position of Hives.=--All hives, if possible, should be arranged to face south, for cold and draughts are among the deadliest foes of the bees. Cold showers of rain or sleet in the spring often work havoc among them so that it is well to minimise the danger as much as possible. In this connection it is a common sight in early spring to see bees that have become chilled lying on the ground near the hives, and novices may gain experience in handling bees by picking up these moribund specimens. They should be lifted with one finger and thumb and dropped into a jar which should be covered at the top and placed before a fire. When the bees have revived they may be liberated. =Manipulating the Bees.=--Confidence is the most necessary quality to the bee-keeper and one, of course, that can only be acquired by experience. One golden rule to be remembered by the beginner is that _the hive should be approached always from the rear_, and another, _that everything should be done slowly and deliberately and never jerkily_. Nothing irritates bees more than erratic or jerky movements on the part of those manipulating the hives.