THE BBOOD-EEABIXG CYCLE OF THE HONEYBEE 23 
Colony No. 14 (fig. 14 and Table 14) had neither sufficient bees 
nor sufficient room to allow the queen to lay eggs at her maximum 
rate during the initial expansion. This colony had a 1920 queen and 
an abundance of stores. The large quantity of stores, both in the 
upper and the lower hive bodies, reduced the area available for 
brood rearing to less than the requirement of the colony. This 
condition was rendered more acute oy the fact that until the time 
of unpacking, May 5, there were only seven frames in the lower hive 
body. The effect of lack of room is visible in the brood curve at 
the end of March. At this time, to give more room, a frame in the 
second hive hodj was replaced by an empty brood frame, with the 
result that there was a slight increase in brood rearing. This extra 
space was not sufficient, however, for the incoming pollen and nectar 
and for the brood. A decline in April resulted from this factor and 
from any influence of the weather. A super was added in the last 
week in April, shortly before the colony was unpacked. This relieved 
the congestion, and in May the brood rearing rose well above the 
height attained during the initial expansion. That the maximum 
was not attained until June is evidence of the fact that there were 
not sufficient bees in the hive from the latter part of April, when an 
abundance of room became available. After June came the normal 
seasonal decrease in brood rearing, lasting until pollen in August 
produced a rather long-continued response. Following this another 
decrease occurred until goldcnrod nectar made itself felt. Owing to 
a large number of field bees the brood nest became much hemmed in. 
The brood-rearing record of this colony was entirely unsatisfactory 
from the standpoint of the honey producer, because the height of 
brood rearing came after all chance of storing surplus was past, and 
was so pronounced that to maintain the colony's new population 
meant serious inroads on what nectar had been gathered. 
Colony No. 15 (fig. 15 and Table 15) was unpacked on May 5, had 
a 1920 queen, light stores, and not sufficient bees to allow brood- 
rearing activity to keep pace with the egg-laying activity of the queen. 
This was the only one of the four packed colonies (Nos. 11, 12, 15 
and 16) provided with light stores which showed any diminution in 
brood rearing directly traceable to lack of honey stores. When 
observations on this colony were first made in March, 1921, the 
honey stores were found to bo low. Not being so strong in bees as 
the other colonies just mentioned, it was not able to gather so much 
nectar during March, and therefore had to use proportionately more 
reserve stores in that month. The records of sealed brood reveal a 
check to the brood-rearing rate in late March, followed by an increase. 
The fact that this increase took place within two weeks after giving 
the colony a full comb of honey in the lower hive body is an evident 
indication that, at the time the extra comb of honey was given, there 
was neither sufficient honey in the hive nor sufficient nectar coming 
in to support any great increase in brood-rearing activity. The 
increase was only short lived, because at the time of the cold spell in 
April the brood area had become as large as could be covered by the 
bees in the hive during such weather. The queen was necessarily 
restricted to this area for the time being, and as a large part of 
the brood in it remained sealed for several days she did not have 
sufficient cells available for further egg laying. The emergence of 
young bees, however, gave her a chance to refill the cells in this 
