February, ’20] MERRILL: WINTER PROTECTION FOR bees 
99 
when the crop is a failure on the uplands. This requires a move of 
something like thirty miles, which can easily be accomplished in a day, 
with their big trucks. 
The above examples could be multiplied indefinitely, but are suffi¬ 
cient to show how necessary it is that the beekeeper be fully informed 
as to the conditions peculiar to his location and that he develop a sys¬ 
tem of beekeeping best adapted to those conditions. 
Chairman W. E. Britton: If there is no discussion, we will 
take up the next paper, “The Relation of Bees to Fire-Blight/’ by 
H. A. Gossard. (Withdrawn for publication elsewhere.) 
Chairman W. E. Britton: We will now listen to the paper by 
Professor J. H. Merrill, entitled “Preliminary Notes on the Value of 
Winter Protection of Bees,” which will be read by Mr. M. C. Tanquary. 
Mr. M. C. Tanquary: I am very sorry that Mr. Merrill is not, 
here, because he has spent two years of work on this subject. I have 
tried to follow him more or less closely, as I was much interested in his 
work. 
PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE VALUE OF WINTER 
PROTECTION FOR BEES 1 
By J. H. Merrill, 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 temperature 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. 
