414 THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW 



cessary heat-production. The greater the necessity for heat-production, the 

 more necessary it becomes for every colony to have an abundance of stores of 

 good quality. The amount required varies vi^ith the length of the winter, and 

 also with the amount of heat which is generated. It is, of course, necessary 

 also to provide or leave stores enough for brood-rearing in late winter or 

 spring, before sufficient stores come to the hive from natural sources. 



COMPARISON OF THE COLONY WITH A FURNACE 



Let us assume that we have a furnace for heating a building so construct- 

 ed that ashes may be removed only when the temperature of the outer air is 

 warm. If the house has thii" v;alls and many openings, the furnace can not 

 maintain a high temperature in extreme cold weather, the amount of fuel con- 

 sumed is increased, the ashes accumulate rapidly and clog the furnace, and in 

 a desperate effort to raise the house temperature we should probably burn out 

 the furnace. On the other hand, if the house is well built and heavily insulat- 

 ed, a low fire will suffice, and as a result there will be a minimum amount of 

 ashes. The better the fuel, the less the amount of ashes in either case. 



It is permissible to compare a colony of bees as a unit of heat-production 

 with this furnace. If the bees are in a single-walled hive in a cold climate, the 

 colony must generate a great amount of heat, must consume much more honey, 

 and feces will accumulate rapidly. As the bees are unable to discharge their 

 feces until the temperature of the outer air is high enough for flight, the 

 "furnace" is clogged. The bees are "burned out" by the excessive heat-produc- 

 tion, and, even worse than in the case of the furnace, the irritation resulting 

 from the presence of feces causes still more heat-production. On the other 

 hand, if abundantly insulated, the heat generated is conserved, the consump- 

 tion of stores and amount of feces are reduced, and the bees can readily retain 

 the feces until a flight day, in any place in which bees can be kept. The bet- 

 ter the stores the less the amount of feces in either case. 



We should not expect much of a furnace in an open shed, and we have no 

 more right to expect good results from a colony wintered in a thin-walled hive 

 in a cold climate, or even in a better hive placed in a windy location. 



CONSERVATION OF HEAT AND REDUCTION OF EXPENDITURE OF 



ENERGY 



In outside wintering the heat produced by the bees is conserved by the 

 insulation of the cluster itself and also by the insulation of the hive and pack- 

 ing. In the cellar there is less insulation near the cluster, but the cellar itself 

 replaces the packing, and is in reality simply an insulation. The insulation of 

 the individual hive, of several hives packed together, or of bees in a cellar 

 serves solely to reduce the loss of heat generated by the bees. 



The amount of packing that should be used obviously varies with the cli- 

 mate and it is impossible to make definite general statements in a bulletin in- 

 tended for all parts of the United States. There is one general statement 

 which can be made with safety. The majority of beekeepers do not give suf- 

 ficient insulation and no beekeeper ever gave a colony too much. For example, 

 in the relatively mild climate of Washington, most beekeepers winter 

 their bees in single-walled hives. The authors have used a large 

 packing case holding four hives, two facing east and two west, 

 close together. This case was constructed so as to hold 3 inches of packing 

 below, 5 inches on the ends, 6 inches on the sides, and 8 to 12 inches on top. 

 Colonies wintered in such a case in Philadelphia in 1913-14, and in the apiary 

 of the Bureau of Entomology at Di'ummond, Md., near Washi?igton, in 1914-15, 



