32 BULLETIN" 1349, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



or less of a brood area in the lower hive body during some portion of 

 the season, and, in addition, colony No. 11 even made some use of 

 the third hive body. In certain instances where much room was 

 available in the second hive body horizontal migrations were found 

 to exist. Whether vertical or horizontal, the peaks of brood rearing 

 represented by these migrations are separated roughly by 3-week 

 intervals, or the time necessary for brood to develop. 



Statements to the effect that the queen hesitates to cross from one 

 hive body to another are often found in the literature of beekeeping. 

 As far as colony No. 4 (figs. 24 and 25) is concerned, there is no indi- 

 cation of any such hesitancy. It may be well to remember in this 

 connection that Langstroth hive bodies were used in the experiment 

 and that good worker combs were present. The curves at no point 

 suggest that any of the breaks are due to a hesitancy in the trans- 

 ference of egg-laying activity from one hive body to another; in fact, 

 the sharpest rise in colony No. 4 during 1922 is accompanied by such 

 a transfer with no resulting break. This holds true of other parts of 

 the curve for the same colony in 1922 as well as 1921. It would 

 seem, then, that the queen will readily ascend or descend from one 

 hive body to another if the intenseness of brood-rearing activity 

 necessitates more room, provided worker bees have taken possession 

 of the other hive body either because of activities in connection with 

 nectar gathering or because of an overflow population. 



COMPACTNESS OF BROOD NEST 



In spite of any migration of the queen within the hive, a study of 

 the location of the sealed brood (figs. 26, 27, 28, and 29) throughout 

 the active season shows a remarkable compactness in the brood area. 

 At all times of the season, except at about the time of the final con- 

 traction, the brood area of colony No. 4 occupied contiguous frames 

 in the second hive body. The most apparent exception occurred 

 during the final contraction in 1921, when the brood area in the second 

 hive body became divided by combs which were filled entirely with 

 honey. The same compactness is observable in the areas occupied 

 in the first and third hive bodies, the only noteworthy exception 

 being in 1922. In that year one of the frames in the third hive 

 body became completely filled with nectar before the queen had occu- 

 pied the frame on either side. When the brood area had included 

 the frame next to this frame of honey, the queen passed around 

 the full comb and laid eggs in the frame on the other side. For 

 several weeks the brood area in the third hive body was thus 

 divided. Whenever the brood area crossed the limits of the second 

 hive body into the first and third, this expansion took place almost 

 entirely in territory as adjacent as possible to the second hive body. 

 This is not apparent from the figures, because for each side of any 

 frame the bar represents by its length the size of the sealed brood 

 area in proportion to the total surface of each side of that frame, 

 represented by the vertical dimension of the frame, and not the exact 

 location of the sealed brood on that frame. Hence the sealed brood 

 in each frame is represented diagrammatically as being in the center 

 of that frame. In the figures only sealed brood is represented, while 

 the present discussion refers to the compactness of all brood. 



