112 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 14 



During the winter, as each colony rested on a platform scale, daily 

 weights were recorded. On the 19th of Ma}^ the packing was removed 

 from the hives and the number of bees and the amount of honey in each 

 hive was again computed. The 19th of May is two weeks later than the 

 date when the spring weights were taken in 1919, and if the queens had 

 been laying 3000 eggs a day, the colonies should have each had 42,000 

 more bees this year at the time of weighing than during 1919. 



The results of the spring weighings in 1920 differed in a great many 

 respects from the preceding years, and at first glance appeared to be 

 unexplainable. However, as will be mentioned later, an examination 

 of the weights taken daily very satisfactorily explained the seeming 

 differences. As in the previous years, the two-story hive and the 

 packed hive in the open were found to be far superior to the one-story 

 unpacked hive. Also the windbreak was shown to be very valuable, 

 as the colonies, with the exception of the packed colonies in the wind- 

 break, were far superior to the similar colonies in the open. The most 

 surprising discovery was that the packed colony had not gained as 

 many bees as the unpacked colony. This was at first very disconcerting, 

 but upon turning to the record card which contained the daily weights 

 taken of these colonies, it was found that on the 19th of April, the packed 

 colony had completely exhausted its winter stores, and from that time 

 until the 19th of May the bees were obliged to subsist on what few flowers 

 they could find. The one-story unpacked hive had been able to con- 

 tinue making its gains, due to the fact that on the 19th day of May it 

 still had a considerable amount of stores left in the hive. Similar condi- 

 tions were found with the packed colony in the open. It had gained 

 over what it had in the fall, but in no way was this gain equal to that made 

 by this same colony during the previous years. In 1918-1919, the 

 one-story unpacked hive in the windbreak gained 313 bees, while the 

 packed hive in the windbreak gained 24,844, but during 1919-1920 the 

 one-story unpacked hive in the windbreak gained 10,000, while the 

 packed hive similarh^ placed gained only 3700. In 1918-1919 the two- 

 story hive in the windbreak gained 5936, whereas in 1919-1920 it gained 

 8125. In 1918-1919 the packed hive had 24331 more bees than the 

 unpacked hive, but in 1919-1920 it had G300 less. Had it not been for 

 the fact that daily records of the changes of weights were kept, these 

 results would have been very hard to account for, and the general 

 opinion that packing was not always of value would have been justified. 

 On the 19th of May, the unpacked hive had five frames of brood, whereas 

 the packed hive had only about three, yet to all ordinary appearances, 

 the packed hive was a good, strong one on the 19th of May, and to a 

 casual observer it would appear that they had wintered well. However, 



