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.