100 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
obliged to resort to muscular activities in order to maintain the proper 
hive temperature. A system of winter protection which would mini¬ 
mize this expenditure of energy would result in a strong colony in the 
spring. 
Phillips and Demuth, 1915 and 1918, give directions for preparing 
bees for the winter which will aid very materially in securing a strong 
colony of bees at the right time of the year. Although their explana¬ 
tions as to the need of winter protection for bees, and how to secure 
this should be satisfactory to all, there still remain a large number of 
people who either through mistaken observations of their own, preju¬ 
dice, or on account of giving value to mistaken observations of others, 
will persist in refusing to accept even the clearest explanation if it 
does not happen to coincide with their preconceived opinions. This 
latter class of people are prone to maintain that these explanations 
may perhaps be facts, but they apply to some other part of the country 
than the one in which they reside. In order to convince them that 
these facts apply to their locality as well as to all other localities, and 
that these problems apply in every respect to them as much as to other 
beekeepers, it is often necessary to conduct additional experiments to 
prove further something which has been clearly explained before. 
It has been the purpose of this experiment to gather data along the 
following points: 
First, the comparative value of one-story and two-story hives for 
wintering; second, the importance of a windbreak; third, the compara¬ 
tive value of packed and unpacked hives for wintering; fourth, the 
amount of stores needed to last a colony until the honey-flow commences; 
fifth, the effect of climatic conditions on wintering; sixth, to ascertain 
what form of winter protection will insure the strongest colony of bees 
at the beginning of the honey-flow. 
In order to secure data on these points, experiments have been car¬ 
ried on at the Kansas State Agricultural College since 1917. In the 
experiment, two sets of hives are used. One set is placed in an open 
exposed situation where it receives no protection at all from the pre¬ 
vailing winds, and the other set is placed in a very dense hedge wind¬ 
break, so that the strength of the wind is very materially broken before 
it reaches the hives. In each set there are three colonies of bees corres¬ 
ponding in every way with each other. That is, there is one one-story 
hive, one two-story hive, and one packed hive in each set. The 
packed hive is in a single packing case, with four inches of leaves be¬ 
neath it, six inches around it, and eight inches on top, used as an insula¬ 
tion. The entrances during the winter months are contracted to one 
three-eighths of an inch auger hole. Each one of these six hives rests 
ion a platform scale, and is not removed from its position throughout 
