THE BROOD-REARING CYCLE OF THE HONEYBEE 19 
enough to insure the be'st wintering conditions. The greatly dimin- 
ished brood-rearing activity during the latter part of the major period 
must be attributed to a failing queen, because at any time after July, 
except for that drawback, there were sufficient bees, stores, and room 
to have resulted in a much greater amount of brood during August 
and September. 
Seasonal brood-rearing activity of the type represented by this 
colony is anything but satisfactory from the standpoint of obtaining 
a honey surplus. Owing to lack of room, the initial expansion did 
not have a chance to proceed normally, even though sufficient bees 
to meet the queen's egg-laying capacity were not on hand. As a 
result of having its early development arrested and retarded, the 
initial expansion became merged with the major period. Owing to 
lack of sufficient bees, brood-rearing activity increased with relative 
slowness, even after sufficient room had been provided. As a conse- 
quence, the maximum of sealed brood was not attained until too late 
for the resulting bees to be useful in gathering nectar for surplus. 
Comparatively slight brood-rearing activity at and preceding the 
final contraction spelled danger to the colony in the coming winter, 
and well illustrates the evil results of failure to requeen at the proper 
time. This colony died in the winter of 1921-22, with some honey 
still remaining in the hive. 
Colony No. 6 (fig. 6 and Table 6) had a 1920 queen, stores in 
abundance, and had been wintered without packing. For this 
colony, there is no sharp distinction between initial expansion and 
major period. Colony No. 6 had an overabundance of stores in the 
second hive body in early spring, thus restricting the queen; but it 
did not have enough bees to permit expansion of the brood area 
downward into the lower hive body at the rate at which it was begun 
in the second hive body. There occurred, therefore, a slight diminu- 
tion of the brood area at the end of March, but the colony so increased 
in population during the fore part of April as to provide more than 
enough bees to take care of brood in all the cells available. Brood- 
rearing activity consequently increased to the maximum in late May, 
excepting another slight break in April, caused by weather conditions. 
Following the maximum there was a rather abrupt decrease due to 
the presence of fresh nectar temporarily within the brood nest. A 
super added during the last week of May partially provided room for 
the honey dew in June, and thus tended to eliminate further restriction 
of the brood area. In fact, an increase in brood rearing took place in 
June. Although the queen had reached in May her maximum for 
the year, she was able to make a noticeable increase in her rate, 
even in July, after having dropped off from her maximum for 
June. It may be added that some pollen was coming in at this time. 
A decrease then followed which lasted until September. Possibly 
owing to the July increase, the response to the pollen yield of August 
is apparent only as a slight diminution in the rate of decrease. Hovv r - 
ever, a pronounced increase in brood rearing took place during the 
September nectar flow. The initial expansion of the colony is 
merged too completely with the major period. During the major 
period there was too much brood rearing, resulting in a useless con- 
sumption of stores. 
Colony No. 7 (fig. 7 and Table 7) had a 1919 queen and sufficient 
stores and had been wintered without packing. Sufficient bees were 
