OUTDOOR AND INDOOR WINTERING. Ill 



cautions strictly essential in a colder climate may still be profitably 

 followed, although fair results may be expected in the main without 

 their strict observance. 



INDOOR WINTERING. 



Dry cellars or special repositories are utilized in those portions of 

 the country where the cold of winter is extreme and likely to be some- 

 what continuous. Economy of food is one of the chief advantages, but 

 two-thirds as much, or about 20 to 25 pounds per hive, are needed to 

 bring a colony through if conditions are favorable. The colonies, pre- 

 pared as regards bees, queens, character of stores, etc., the same as for 

 outdoor wintering, are carried into the cellar or repository just before 

 the first snows come or severe freezing occurs. Caps are removed or 

 lifted up and cushions or mats laid on the frames. Light is excluded 

 and all other disturbing influences in so far as possible, the effort being 

 made to keep the temperature at about 42 F. during the earlier part 

 of the winter. Later, especially after brood-rearing may have been 

 begun, a somewhat higher degree is admissible 45 to 46, some even 

 allowing it to go up to 50. No definite rule can be given, however, 

 since much depends upon the humidity of the air, etc. As long as the 

 bees remain quiet the temperature is not too high and is preferably 

 to be maintained. Should they become exceedingly restless, and the 

 opportunity occur during a winter thaw to give them a cleansing flight, 

 it will be advisable to return them for a few hours or a day or two to 

 their summer stands, and when they have flown and quieted down, 

 replace them in the cellar or repository. In the spring there should 

 not be too great eagerness to get them out of the cellar, provided they 

 are not restless. Their confinement indoors makes them somewhat 

 ^sensitive to the outside cold, and due caution should be observed, else 

 the ranks of the workers will become greatly decimated before young 

 ones appear to take their places. 



The same questions regarding ventilation of hives indoors that puz- 

 zle many in the case of those left on their summer stands have been 

 discussed over and over. All that is necessary, however, is to consider 

 the same points, the question being less complicated, though, by reason 

 of the greater uniformity between the temperature surrounding the 

 cluster of bees and that outside the hive when the latter is in a suitable 

 winter repository. Some have reported -success in wintering in damp 

 cellars, yet it is probable that such success was purely accidental, or 

 rather occurred in spite of the dampness of the repository, the other 

 conditions very likely having all been favorable, especially as regards 

 ventilation of the cellar, and the important points of having good 

 stores and an even temperature, which should be several degrees higher 

 than is required in a dry cellar. , Wintering in a damp repository is, 

 however, attended in general with such risks that it should by all means 

 be avoided, and the bees, even in a severe climate, intrusted prefera- 

 bly to their summer stands, if well prepared as regards their stores and 

 populousness. 



