18 BULLETIN 1349, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE, 



the brood area was quickly hedged about by incoming nectar, with the 

 consequent great reduction in cells available for egg laying. Emerg- 

 ing bees made more room available in June; and consequently, 

 under the stimuli of incoming pollen and honeydew, the queen's 

 activities were increased to a limited extent. After this there was 

 a continuous decrease in brood rearing until the old queen was 

 superseded in August. The colony had been endeavoring to super- 

 sede her since May, but all queen cells had been removed as soon as 

 found. Finally one was left intentionally, from which a virgin 

 emerged. The colony had become rather weak by August, how- 

 ever, and the curve shows no apparent response to the pollen yield 

 of that month, although the old queen was still alive. The new 

 queen had mated and had commenced to lay by August 25. During 

 the nectar flow of September she attained a rate which compared 

 favorably with that attained by the old queen even during the 

 initial expansion. Owing to the fact that the old queen was failing, 

 the brood-rearing responses of this colony to nectar and pollen yields 

 are not so clearly shown as in colonies with more vigorous queens. 

 The effect of the April weather is, however, very apparent. 



Colony No. 5 (fig. 5 and Table 5) was wintered without packing, 

 had a 1920 queen, and was provided with abundant stores of honey. 

 In fact, the second hive body was so well filled with honey that the 

 queen was cramped for room in late March, and it was deemed 

 advisable to replace two frames of honey in the second hive body 

 with empty frames. Although before these empty frames were 

 substituted the queen had reached the limit of room for egg laying 

 in the second hive body, scarcely any brood was reared in the lower 

 hive body until May Or June, even though plenty of room was 

 available there in March. Before the cold spell in April there were 

 more than sufficient bees in the hive to take care of brood in all 

 available cells in the second hive body, but not enough to maintain 

 in addition a large brood area in the lower hive body. The addition 

 of the two extra frames permitted an expansion of the brood area in 

 the second hive body, and the amount of sealed brood mounted 

 slowly, even during the cold weather. During this period, however, 

 the queen laid no eggs in the lower hive body. 



In her activities the queen kept pace with the ever-increasing num- 

 ber of young bees from the first part of April until the maximum of 

 the season. During this period, nevertheless, brood-rearing activity 

 suffered a slight check in May, at a time when much pollen and some 

 nectar were coming in. No super had as yet been given the colony, 

 and, as much of the pollen and nectar were being deposited within 

 the brood nest proper, the queen was once more cramped for room. 

 A super given at this time relieved the shortage of room and fur- 

 nished storage space for what little surplus was gathered during the 

 tuliptree nectar flow immediately following, and more particularly 

 during the honeydew yield of June, when the maximum brood- 

 rearing activity of the season was attained. During the dearth of 

 nectar immediately afterwards, brood-rearing activity fell off notice- 

 ably until stimulated by the pollen yield in August. From the height 

 of the response to this stimulation until the beginning of the Sep- 

 tember nectar flow, brood-rearing activity underwent another strikmg 

 decrease. There was somewhat of an increase in September, which, 

 although rather conspicuous on the curve, was not nearly great 



