THE BROOD-EEAEIXG CYCLE OF THE HONEYBEE 27 



STORES 



As already stated, none of the 16 colonies suffered from lack of 

 stores at the beginning of the period of initial expansion. ' No data 

 were obtained, therefore, showing the effect of want of stores on 

 brood rearing. It was evident, however, as soon as nectar became 

 prematurely available from fruit bloom, that certain colonies had 

 such an abundance of stores as to result in lack of room for any 

 expansion of the brood area. The history of colony No. 14 brings 

 out this fact, although in this instance colony population also influ- 

 enced the result. The importance of having sufficient stores in 

 early spring until incoming nectar supplies the current needs of the 

 colony, and the need of room sufficient to offer no check to the 

 initial expansion, should emphasize to users of the Langstroth or other 

 hive bodies of equivalent size the value of wintering a colony in two 

 hive bodies, and show that otherwise a full population for the honey 

 flow is liable not to be attained. 



OBSERVATIONS IN 1920 



It has been thought of interest to introduce at this point the work 

 done by Lloyd R. Watson in 1920, while he was connected with the 

 Bee Culture Laboratory. As already stated, through direct counts 

 of all eggs, larvae, and sealed brood, he was able to obtain in that year 

 a total of five seasonal brood records. (Tables 18 to 22.) It must 

 be borne in mind that the curves (figs. 19 to 23) based on these 

 records represent a total of all eggs, larvse, and sealed brood, whereas 

 the curves (figs. 1 to 18) based on photographic records made by the 

 writer represent sealed brood only. Furthermore, the curves for 1920 

 are not drawn to the same scale as are the other curves in this paper. 

 These differences in themselves would be sufficient to cause the 

 curves to present apparent discrepancies in the time and degree of 

 response even to the same stimuli. Unfortunately, too few data on 

 each colony are available, other than the actual counts of brood, to 

 warrant a close correlation between the brood records for 1920 and 

 those already discussed. Nevertheless, the results for 1920 are in 

 line with those presented for the succeeding years. 



Each of the five colonies (A, B, C, D, and E) had been wintered in 

 two hive bodies in quadruple packing cases. Colonies C, D, and E 

 were unpacked on March 17, while colonies A and B were left packed 

 until April 13. In August, 1919, a young queen had been introduced 

 into each colony. All the colonies were well provided with stores. 



In 1920, as in 1921, there was a period of cool weather during early 

 April. From April 4 to April 11, inclusive, the minimum and maxi- 

 mum temperature corresponded roughly with the freezing point (32° 

 F., 0° C.) and the clustering point (57° F., 13.89° C.) respectively. 

 In fact, with two exceptions, the minimum temperature on each day 

 of this period was below 32° F. (0° C.) whereas on only two occa- 

 sions docs the temperature record for any day within this period show 

 a maximum of over 57° F. (13.89° C). The two exceptions to the 

 minimum are April 4, with a minimum record of 39° F. (3.89° C), 

 and April 5, with a minimum record of 43° F. (6.11° C). The two 

 exceptions to the maximum occurred on April 9 and April 11, the 

 former having a maximum of 61° F. (16.11° C), the latter of 64° F. 

 (17.78° C). The data available as to honey Hows show that the 

 joo-t neclur of the year was gathered during the last half of May. 



