No. 374.] ACTIVITY OF A HIVE OF BEES. 95 
small decrease in weight on June 4 seems to be more correctly 
attributed to the fact that the bees secured their stores so near 
by and returned so frequently and in such numbers that a very 
small (210 gm.) instead of a great decrease in weight resulted. 
The same explanation, also, may account for the curve crossing 
the zero line during the forenoon. 
From the data that have been given one may conclude 
1. That for the particular locality, Fontainebleau, where the 
weights were taken, there are four periods of honey flow, two 
characterized by an abundant and two by a poor flow, and that 
the activity of the bees through the abundant flow and that 
during the poor. flow is characteristic in each case. During the 
poor flow there is a period of comparative inactivity during the 
middle of the day, corresponding apparently to a period of small 
flow of nectar, but during the abundant flow the activity of the 
bees is more or less constant through the whole day. 
2. Aside from this midday activity the bees go and come 
steadily, and the hive, after the minimum weight is passed, 
increases in weight progressively and with comparative steadi- 
ness. 
3. When the flow of nectar is poor, or comparatively so, the 
bees during the first hour or so leave the hive slowly. At the 
end of this time the rate of departure changes to a very rapid 
one, which continues with slight variation until the minimum 
weight is reached. 
4. When the flow of nectar is abundant the rate of departure 
continues, as at the start, to be practically the same until the 
minimum is reached ; but this feature of the curve may be due 
also to the greater number of bees returning to the hive and 
the unloading of heavy loads more than to the bees maintaining 
a constant rate of departure. 
5. When the flow is very abundant the outgoing bees do not 
reduce the weight of the hive to so great an extent as when the 
flow is relatively poor. 
