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How Pollen Is Stored In The Breeding Season

Categories: BREEDING.
Bee Keeping: Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained

But in the height of the breeding season, a circle of cells nearly all

bee-bread, an inch or two wide, will border the sheets of comb

containing brood. As bee-bread is probably the principal food of the

young bee, it is thus very convenient.



When pollen is abundant, and the swarm is in prosperous condition, they

soon reach the outside sheets of comb with the brood. At this period,

when the hive is about f
ll, and the queen is forced to the outside

combs to find a place for her eggs, it is interesting to witness

operations in a glass hive. I have seen her several times during one

day, on the same piece of comb (next the glass). The light has no

immediate effect on her "Highness," as she will quietly continue about

her duty, not the least embarrassed by curious eyes at the window.

Before depositing an egg, she enters the cell head first, probably to

ascertain if it is in proper condition to receive it; as a cell part

filled with bee-bread or honey is never used. If the area of combs is

small, or the family is small, and cannot protect a large space with

the necessary heat, she will often deposit two, and sometimes three, in

one cell (the supernumeraries I suppose are removed by the workers).

But under prosperous circumstances, with a hive of suitable size, &c.,

this emergency is avoided.



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