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 whatever. 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 
be 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-bread 
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, 
