February, ’20] 
MERRILL: WINTER PROTECTION FOR BEES 
105 
Table I shows that the packed hive had 25,000 more bees than the 
one-story unpacked hive. This represents about five pounds of bees, 
which, at their present market value of around $2 a pound, would 
mean about $10. The difference between the number of bees in a 
packed hive and in an unpacked one in the sheltered set of hives was 
practically the same as in the open. 
Table II, which gives the results for 1918-19, shows that the winter 
of 1918-19 was harder on the bees than was the preceding winter, and 
yet this is the winter in which packed bees wintered the best. In fact, 
there is more difference in this unfavorable winter between the packed 
and unpacked hives than in the more favorable one. This is shown by 
the fact that while the one-story hive in the open lost 3,282 bees, and 
the two-story hive 469, the packed hive gained 22,968. In the sheltered 
hives the one-story hive gained 313 bees, the two-story hive gained 593, 
2 Story 
Pocked 
Fig. 3. A comparison of the amount of stores consumed each month by colonies 
in packed hives and the amount consumed by colonies in unpacked hives. 
but the packed hive gained 24,844. When judged by the standard of 
the number of bees in the hive, packing appears to be the most valuable 
factor of wintering, excepting, of course, sufficient stores. 
