PACKING CASES 251 
Sometimes queen cells will be started very early in preparation 
for swarming. At the same time colonies without protection 
were making slow progress toward building up. 
It is very apparent that such colonies as described on May 
first are worth much more as honey gatherers during the clover 
flow. When colonies reach this stage sufficiently early it is some- 
times possible though seldom advisable to make increase ahead 
of the clover flow. Where the main flow is later in the season, 
this extra early brood rearing is not so important, though the 
colonies should be strong. Over large areas of the Northern 
States the bees need careful attention to build them up early 
enough, as a rule. In these packing cases the bees will some- 
times store surplus from fruit bloom and dandelion. 
Reports of success from wintering in these or similar cases 
are uniformly good where the work has been properly done, over 
nearly all the States and Canada. 
For large apiaries a éase which holds four colonies, two 
facing east and two west, is perhaps more desirable. The worst 
objection to packing cases is the large amount of labor in pre 
paring for winter and the bother of storing the cases in summer. 
As one bee-keeper expressed it, the results were good but it 
required acres of space to store his packing cases in summer. 
Instead of nailing the cases into permanent form it is a common 
practice to fasten at the corners with hooks, so that the parts can 
be piled up compactly during the summer months. In large 
apiaries the use of drygoods boxes is hardly practical because 
of the difficulty of disposing of so much bulk when not in use. 
Where only a few are in use they can readily be turned to account 
as chicken coops in summer (Fig. 117). 
The packing case is perhaps the safest and most generally 
successful of any method of wintering, taking the country as a 
whole. It is adapted to any section, north or south, and permits 
the bees to fly wherever the weather is sufficiently warm. There 
is much trouble from outdoor wintered colonies losing large num- 
bers of bees which fly out on bright days when it is too cold for 
