T 



ne (i)ee-f\eepeps jAcvieo. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 

 Devoted to tlqo lr|tcrests of Hor]ey Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 

 W. z, HUTCHINSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



VOL, VII 



LiNT, MICHIGAN, JULY 10. 1895. 



NO. 7. 



Work at IVEidiigan's 



Experimental 



-A.piarv. 



15. L TAYLOK, APIARIPT. 

 SPKING-PACKING OF BEES. 



T AST year fiu 

 £j extensive ex- 

 periment in the 

 |i:ieldn<j of bees 

 diirintr the spring 

 inontlis was made 

 wifhfi \iew to de- 

 termiiiiut,' wheth- 

 e r a n y benefit 

 was to be derived 

 from such protec- 

 tion, or to put it 

 ill another way, 

 whether the warmtli retained by the packing 

 more than counterbalenced the sim lieat 

 shut out by it. The result proved the pack- 

 ing to be disastrous for a spring of the char- 

 acter of that of 1SS»4, with bees in the condi- 

 tion those used for that experiment were in 

 during that time. Many of the colonies 

 were weak in numbers and some of them 

 not in the best of health. The spring losses 

 were dispro[)ortionately large and the col- 

 onies that survived did not do so well as did 

 those without any protection. 



The importance of the matter prompted 

 me to repeat the experiment the present 

 spring but on a much smaller scale since I 



had become satisfied in my own mind that 



at the best it could not prove very profitable. 

 Twelve colonies were selected for the pur- 

 pose, a history of who^e condition, reaching 

 back to the preceding fall and up to the time 

 when the packing was removed the 12th of 

 the current June, was carefully kept. 8ome 

 of the colonies showed more or less signs of 

 having voided excrement during winter be- 

 fore removed from the cellar, but after 

 their first spring tlight I considered them to 

 be in excellent health and of considerably' 

 more than the average strength for the sea- 

 son. So far as tlie rearing of brood was con- 

 cerned, all the colonies were substantially 

 alike when the t)acking was done which was 

 effected as soon as they were thoroughly set- 

 tled after removal from the winter quarters. 

 At that time brood rearing was only fairly 

 begun, there being capped brood in each; 

 covering a comb space of eight or ten square 

 inches and young brood and eggs covering a 

 space equal to about one-half a Langstroth 

 frame. The twelve colonies were divided 

 equally into two lots of six each as impar- 

 tially as possible that the two lots might be 

 as nearly alike as possible in all respects. 

 Before doing this the colonies were again 

 weighed, this time and the subsequent time 

 the bottom board of each being included. 

 As will be seen the advantage in the division 

 was slightly with the lot packed both in the 

 average strength as well as in the total 

 weight. A table is given herewith showing 

 the condition of each colony in detail at dif- 

 ferent times, including the weights and 



