BROOD AND BROOD-REARING 
143 
ably, will not go beyond one or two frames. 
If considerable brood is in the hive when 
a severe cool or cold spell comes on, it is 
apt to result in a lot of chilled brood. 
Capped brood in lower left corner, pollen above and 
at the right. 
Sometimes during the flow, when late 
flowers are in bloom, the bees and queen 
apparently become excited and begin 
breeding heavily. A chilly, rainy spell 
may come on for four or five days, but not 
cold enough to kill the blossoms in the 
fields. During the interim the cluster con¬ 
tracts, especially at night. The young 
brood outside of the cluster chills and dies. 
In a day or two these larvee will be found 
scattered around the entrance of the hive, 
and the beginner is inclined to come to the 
conclusion that something is wrong—that 
some bee disease like foul brood is in the 
hives. 
The statement was made that egg-laying 
would begin to decrease after the main 
honey flow. This is true with all except 
young laying queens. A queen reared in 
June will probably continue laying all 
thru the summer, and the colony will con¬ 
tain brood in all stages. One reared in 
September will begin laying immediately, 
no matter what the conditions, and she 
will keep it up till cool or cold weather 
shuts it off. 
In some localities it is an advantage to 
use young queens in order that there may 
be a large force of young bees for the 
honey flow that will follow the main one. 
The secondary flow, perhaps, will be from 
buckwheat, aster, goldenrod, or all of them. 
It is important to have a strong force of 
bees for it. Brood-rearing should, there¬ 
fore, be continued from the first flow 
either by having young queens or by stimu¬ 
lative feeding, if honey is not coming in 
from natural sources. See Feeding, sub¬ 
head “Feeding to Stimulate"; also Build¬ 
ing Up Colonies. 
“by their fruits ye shall know them.” 
The amount of brood, the manner in 
which the eggs are laid—whether in scat¬ 
tering or irregular patches—also give one 
a fair idea, even tho he has not seen her, 
of the kind of queen he has in the hive. If 
there is only a scant amount of brood, and 
eggs are scattering when other colonies are 
well supplied, the presumption is that the 
queen is poor, and that a better queen 
should be put in her place. After she is 
found, the probabilities are that she will 
be small, not much larger than a worker. 
If, on the other hand, brood is found in 
six or seven frames, in all stages of growth 
from eggs to the emerging bees, in a ten- 
frame colony; the conclusion may be drawn 
that the queen is a good one, even tho she 
has not been seen. “By their fruits ye 
shall know them.” When located, the 
queen will probably be discovered to be 
large, handsome, long or full-bodied. By 
waiting a moment, one may have the pleas¬ 
ure of seeing her lay an egg, for such a 
queen is usually on the job night and day. 
As already stated, after the main honey 
flow egg-laying may almost entirely cease. 
One is more apt to find this condition at 
the close of the general harvest where the 
queen is one or two years old. A young 
queen reared in spring will usually con¬ 
tinue to lay thruout the season. But usu¬ 
ally any queen will begin laying when new 
honey begins to come in or when the col¬ 
ony is given stimulative feeding. Brood¬ 
rearing late in the fall, when the general 
weather is such that bees cannot fly, should 
not be attempted since it does more harm 
than good. There should be no brood in 
the hives during winter in the North until 
about February or March, and then in 
only small patches and in outdoor colonies. 
Too early brood-rearing during winter 
may or may not be a good omen. Much 
will depend on the climate and the winter. 
A mild winter or a mild climate will start 
breeding, especially if the bees can fly; 
but if a sharp cold snap follows, much of 
the brood will die, and the colony will 
suffer. In the South, brood-rearing on ac¬ 
count of the mildness of the climate may 
or may not progress every month in the 
year. Breeding always requires a large 
amount of stores, and this explains why 
