24 BULLETIN 1349, U. S. DEPABTMEXT OF AGEICULTUEE 
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 slimmer 
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 
