BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 249 



especially concerned in the conduct of the campaign for more honey, 

 and the meeting was highly successful. 



Mention should be made of the honey-market news service begun 

 on June 15 by the Office of Markets and Rural Organization at the 

 request of this bureau. This was proposed before war was declared, 

 but is especially timely now. The market news service should serve to 

 curtail speculation and make the market more stable. 



Wintering of bees. — "Work on the wintering of bees has been con- 

 tinued chiefly in testing various methods of packing for colonies 

 wintered outdoors. The various commercial insulated hives used in 

 the United States were again tested in comparison with hives heavily 

 insulated in special packing cases. Even in the mild climate of 

 Washington there was a marked advantage in the heavy packing, 

 and by the middle of June the colonies that had been well packed 

 were still markedly stronger than those that w^ere poorly packed. 

 This is a point of iinportance, as many beekeepers have believed that 

 before the clover honey flow^ weak colonies will build up sufficiently 

 to gather a full crop. The records are not complete, but it is evident 

 that the colonies heavily packed wdll produce this year an average 

 crop of over 50 pounds and possibly 100 pounds more than those in- 

 sufficiently packed. A colony packed in the fall of 1915 with 16 

 inches of sawdust on all sides, top, and bottom, was allowed to remain 

 packed during the entire summer of 1916 and until the spring of 

 1917. It did not suffer from excessive heat during the summer and 

 again wintered perfectly and is now one of the strongest colonies in 

 the apiary. Evidently beekeepers have nothing to fear from ex- 

 cessive insulation at any 'season of the year. Tests w^ere made with 

 colonies wintered in two hive bodies, the top one being well filled 

 with honey and the entire hive being heavily packed. These colonies 

 wintered much better than those equally well packed in single hi^'e 

 bodies. The work with bees in a special respiration calorimeter 

 mentioned in the last annual report was taken up again in the fall 

 of 1916, but an accident to the apparatus caused it to be discontinued. 

 Such work can be done only in a brief period in the fall, when the 

 bees are without brood and before there is an accumulation of feces 

 in the intestines. It is necessary, therefore, to wait until the fall 

 of 1917 to renew this investigation. 



Development or the bee. — Studies on the development of the 

 bee have been carried on for some time. At present the work on the 

 anatomy of the larva is being completed and certain interesting 

 phases of larval behavior are being studied. The war emergency 

 has interfered greatly with this project. 



Diseases of bees. — On September 1. 1916, the specialist who has 

 been engaged in a study of the etiology of bee diseases completed this 

 work and his results are being prepared for publication. An exten- 

 sive report on sacbrood (Department Bulletin No. 431) was pub- 

 lished during the year. A paper on the spore-bearing bacteria of the 

 apiary has been published in the Journal of Agricultural Eesearch. 

 This will prove valuable to laboratory workers on brood diseases. 

 Another paper for the laboratory diagnostician was prepared, giving 

 the methods of diagnosis of samples submitted for examination. 

 Future work on bee diseases will deal chiefly with the more practical 



