Reprinted from the Journan or Economic Entomotoey, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1920 
PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE VALUE OF WINTER 
PROTECTION FOR BEES! 
By J. H. Merrixz, Apiarist, Kansas State Agricultural College and 
Experiment Station 
That a strong colony of bees will gather more honey than a weak one 
is a fact accepted by all experienced beekeepers. However, to gather 
more honey, this colony should be strong at the proper time in order 
to take the fullest advantage of the honey-flow. The proper time to 
have a colony strong is at the beginning of the honey-flow. If it be- 
comes strong too early, it consumes stores which the bees have in the 
hive; if too late, it cannot assist in gathering the crop for that season. 
Whether or not the colony is strong will depend to a large extent upon 
how it passed through the winter. 
Gates, 1914, gives some very valuable data on the ieriparafine of 
the colony of bees throughout the year. Phillips and Demuth, 1914, 
give the results of some very careful observations on the temperature 
of a colony of bees in winter, and further explain in detail the actions 
of such a colony during the winter which are necessary in order to 
maintain a proper temperature. Phillips maintains that a bee may 
be compared to a storage battery in that it has a certain amount of 
energy to spend, after which it dies. He further says that the bee is 
1 Contribution No. 48 from the Entomological Laboratory, Kansas State Agricul- 
tural College. This paper embodies some of the results obtained in the prosecution 
of project No. 126 of the Agricultural Experiment Station. 
