February, '21] merrill: winter protection 111 



in the Journal of Economic Entomology, Vol. 18, No. 1, pages 99 to 

 111. In this report it was explained that two series of hives were used 

 in this experiment, one of which was placed in the open, and the other 

 was placed so that it was protected by a dense windbreak. In each set 

 there were used orie one-story hive, one two-stt)ry HiVe, and another 

 two-story hive, which was placed in a packing box and insulated with 

 leaves, whereas the one-story hive and the two-story hive were left 

 unpacked. 



As a standard of what constitutes good wintering, it was decided that 

 that colony which possessed the greatest number of bees at the beginning 

 of the honey flow was the one which had wintered best. In the fall of 

 the year, and again in the spring, by a system of weighing, and allowing 

 5000 bees to a pound, it was possible to very closely approximate the 

 total number of bees in a colony and the amount of honey both in the 

 fall and in the spring: The results for the first two year's work con- 

 clusively showed that a two-story hive gave better wintering results 

 than a one-story hive. Since this was due to a greater depth, making 

 it possible to leave more honey, and also provide room for clustering and 

 spring brood rearing, then, for the same reason, a larger and deeper 

 hive would be preferred even to a two-story hive, because it would have 

 the extra room and depth in one set of frames. It was also shown that 

 the difference between a packed and an unpacked colony was repre- 

 sented by about 25000 bees, or five pounds. With bees selling at S2.50 

 a pound, this would mean $12.50 saved by using the packing. The wind- 

 break was shown to make a difference with the unpacked colonies of 

 about 2500 bees. With the packed colony, however, the windbreak 

 was not as valuable, showing that if a windbreak was not available, 

 packing, to a large extent, would take its place. 



Ordinarily, in the vicinity of Manhattan, Kansas, the elms begin 

 blooming about the second week in March, followed by the soft maples, 

 after which other spring flowers, that is, fruit bloom, etc., appear. 

 Usually it would be necessar}- to leave only stores enough in the hive 

 to last the bees until April, after which time, unless the weather is un- 

 favorable, the bees will gather sufficient honey for spring brood rearing. 

 The spring of 1920 was very cold and unfavorable. On the 5th day of 

 April, the temperature at Manhattan dropped to five degrees above zero, 

 killing not only the flowers which had already appeared, but so seriously 

 injuring the buds as to prevent the later flowers from appearing. Con- 

 sequently, the bees were obliged to subsist almost entirely on honey 

 which was left in the hive in the fall. 



The bees were put into winter quarters on October 4th, 1919, and the 

 number of bees and amount of honey in each colony was computed. 



