24 BULLETIN 1349, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



area, as is shown by a rise in the curve during the first week of 

 May. In the meantime, however, the upper edges of this area had 

 been cut off by incoming nectar and pollen. Field bees had been 

 kept busy during the latter part of April after the cold weather, 

 although nectar was not very abundant. To relieve the resulting 

 congestion, a super had been given in the last week of April, about a 

 week before unpacking, and on unpacking three more frames had been 

 placed in the lower hive body to take the place of the packed division 

 boards. With this extra room the queen was able to expand the 

 brood area in proportion to the number of nurse bees. The result 

 was a sharp rise in May to a maximum which was maintained through- 

 out most of June. During this period there was plenty of room in 

 the hive to provide cells for the activities 'both of the field bees and 

 of the queen. From the latter part of June until the pollen yield 

 of August the activities of the queen became more and more restricted, 

 excepting a brief response to pollen in July. A fair response was 

 made to the pollen yield of August. By this time the large number 

 of bees which had emerged during June, plus the brood reared after 

 that month, had depleted the honey stores to a point which caused a 

 serious diminution of brood-rearing activity between the pollen yield 

 of August and the nectar flow of September. In the spring the 

 colony had not suffered from want of stores but had no great surplus; 

 during the May nectar flow and the greater portion of the honeydew 

 yield in June sufficient field bees had not as yet developed to add 

 much to the surplus stores. Consequently during the summer 

 practically all of the honey stores were consumed. To save the 

 colony it became necessary to add three full combs of honey to the 

 second hive body in the second week in September. This factor, 

 coupled with the oncoming nectar flow, caused another increase in 

 brood rearing. By the second week in October honey stores were 

 practically depleted once more, and it was necessary to add more 

 frames of honey. Under such circumstances brood rearing had not 

 progressed actively enough just prior to the seasonal contraction to 

 afford this colony an optimum number of bees for winter. The 

 whole curve is highly unsatisfactory, because the initial expansion 

 does not represent sufficient brood-rearing activity and because too 

 wide a gap separates the maximum activity of the major period from 

 the initial expansion. At the end of the season there is also too wide 

 a gap in the continuity of the curve for the major period between the 

 point of demarcation of the seasonal contraction and the next pre- 

 ceding high point of the major period'. 



Colony No. 16 had a 1920 queen, light stores, and was unpacked 

 on May 5. Although the brood curve for this colony (fig. 16 and 

 Table 16) shows a rather rapid and early initial expansion, there 

 were not quite enough bees for the queen. During the initial expan- 

 sion the queen was utilizing all of the 10 frames in the second hive 

 body. She had reached the limit of the area of brood which could 

 be cared for in March, however, and a slight decrease followed. With 

 the emergence of young bees more room was available within the 

 brood area, and the queen began to take advantage of this, but was 

 restrained somewhat by the cold weather in April. When the warm 

 weather came, before the queen could take possession of all the cells 

 made available by emerging bees, a large number of cells had already 

 been used for incoming nectar and pollen, resulting in a striking drop 



