10 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 695. 
the bees are not adequately supplied with good stores for winter these 
should now be given immediately, and, when the feeding is finished, 
the winter insulation should be applied at once. At this time bees are 
the quietest of any period of the year. The disturbance incident to 
putting on the insulation does not do them any harm. After 
this the beekeeper should have no occasion to open the hive until 
spring. An outer temperature above 60° F. is desirable at the time of 
packing, especially if no brood is present. Any day when bees are 
flying is suitable. 
If packing is delayed until late it may do far more damage than 
to leave the bees unpacked. A colony of bees that is generating heat 
in response to low temperature is considerably disturbed by the 
manipulations during packing and the temperature of the inside of 
the cluster is promptly raised. Frequently, if bees are packed too 
late (when it is too cold outside), the cluster temperature is raised 
‘to brood-rearing temperature, the queen begins to lay eggs, and 
brood-rearing is usually then continued through the winter, unless it 
results in the death of the colony, as is often the case. Many bee- 
keepers pack their colonies in December with most harmful results. 
There is probably no place in the United States where packing is 
needed in which it is safe to wait later than Thanksgiving Day. 
Since more beekeepers make mistakes here than in any other phase 
of outside wintering, this should be emphasized most strongly. The 
authors have succeeded on several occasions in starting brood-rear- 
ing in December by manipulation, both in colonies wintered outside 
and in removing bees to a cellar, and it is certain that such winter 
brood-rearing is highly injurious to the colony. 
Time for unpacking.—If a colony has a good queen and plenty of 
stores and is well packed, the beekeeper rarely has any reason for 
opening the hive until spring is well advanced. If he is not sure of 
the condition of the colony, he may wish to examine it earlier, but 
this first examination should be brief and the packing may be par- 
tially removed and replaced afterwards. If there are any queenless 
colonies or any colonies short of stores, these defects should, of 
course, be promptly corrected, after which the colony should re- 
main undisturbed until, as the season advances, frequent manipula- 
tions are necessary. It is often best to leave the insulation on until 
the colonies need more room, which will probably be as late as May 
15 in the North. Colonies which have wintered poorly need their 
insulation longest, while colonies that have been well insulated, either 
in a cellar or outside, can, if necessary, stand considerable exposure 
without much damage, although the work of heat-generation thereby 
reduces the energy available for building up the colony rapidly. 
The time for removing packing may be still further delayed by 
wintering a colony outside in two-hive bodies, the upper one being 
