BEE PASTURAGE. 107 



too little room is left for brood, and the stock rapidly 

 dwindles away in consequence." The first of these 

 assertions has been given as a test to decide whether 

 the hive contains a queen or not. Now my bees have 

 such a habit of doing things wrong that the above is 

 no test ^vhatever. It is made to appear very well in 

 theory, but wants the truth in practice. I will say 

 what I have known on this point, and perhaps clear 

 up the difficulty of a stock containing an unusual 

 quantity of bee-bread with the honey, and instead of 

 being the cause of its having but few bees, it is the effect. 

 Stocks and sometimes swarms lose their queen in the 

 swarming season, (the particulars will be given in 

 another place,) when, instead of remaining idle, the 

 usual quantity of both pollen and honey is collected 

 (unless the family is very small). There being no 

 larvae to consume the bread, the consequence is, more 

 than half the breeding cells will contain it ; they will 

 be packed about two-thirds full, and finished out with 

 honey. I have known a large family left under such 

 circumstances, and about all the cells in the hive 

 would be occupied. Whereas, in a stock containing 

 a queen and rearing brood, a portion of the combs will 

 he used for this purpose until the flowers fail, and then 

 such comb will be found empty. 



AN EXTRA QUANTITY OF POLLEN NOT ALWAYS DETRIMENTAL. 



To test whether this extra quantity of bee-brfead 

 was so very detrimental, I have introduced into such 

 hive in the fall a family with a queen and wintered 

 them in it, and watched their prosperity, another year. 



