April, ’23] 
MERRILL: WINTER PROTECTION FOR BEES 
127 
hive No. 16 nor hive No. 7 had as many bees as might have been ex¬ 
pected. 
Since it was the purpose of this experiment to ascertain the best 
methods of wintering, the failure of these two hives should be ex¬ 
plained. The explanation is simple—they both lacked sufficient stores. 
On April 19th, the stores in colony No. 7 were practically exhausted. 
While this was indeed unfortunate for those individual colonies, it was 
fortunate for the experiment as a whole. Colony No. 7 had only an 
increase of 3,800 bees; whereas, had it had sufficient stores, the number 
might have been about ten times as many. The same condition applies 
to colony No. 16. Sufficient stores were left in all of these hives to 
amply supply their needs through an ordinary winter and spring. How¬ 
ever, a severe freeze on Easter Sunday killed all of the fruit bloom; 
consequently, more honey was needed. An examination of the two 
colonies which were deficient in stores showed much less brood than 
any of the others, which would indicate that if the stores in a hive were 
nearing exhaustion, the daily rate of egg-laying would be materially 
lowered. This emphasizes the necessity for leaving plenty of stores. 
The most marked results on the value of winter protection were those 
obtained during the winter of 1920-1921, which was very mild and open 
with frequent opportunities for the bees to take flight. In fact, it was 
very similar to winters in those parts of the country where the remark is 
often heard that ‘‘there is no need of packing our bees because we have 
such mild, open winters.” Colony No. 7, which was not only packed 
but protected by a windbreak, had 47,575 more bees in the spring than 
it had in the fall, while the one-story unpacked hive in the open had 
25,358 less bees in the same year, which would seem to answer the above 
quoted objection. A study of the results noted in Table II indicates 
that a windbreak is of much greater importance than is ordinarily 
believed. 
Table II— Value of Windbreaks 
’ 
No. 5 
No. 6 
No. 7 
1-story unpacked 
2-story unpacked 
2-story packed 
Protected by windbreak. 
.1513 
7859 
*14,592 
No. 2 
No. 16 
No. 4 
Unprotected by windbreak. . 
.7087 
-109 
*11,053 
Advantage of windbreak in 
number of bees. 
.8,600 
7,968 
3,539 
*Colony No. 4 was blown over by the wind during the winter of 1920-1921 and 
was eliminated from the experiment for that year. It was during that year that 
colony No. 7 showed the greatest supreiority over unpacked hives; therefore, it 
seems reasonable to infer that colony No. 4 would likewise have shown a marked 
superiority, but as No. 4 was eliminated by accident, No. 7 should be eliminated 
during that year as well, hence, this table shows an average of three years’ work in¬ 
stead of four. 
