WINTERING.—Chapter XVIII. 
covers should, of course, be placed over the super. Strong colonies will 
sometimes take the contents of one of these ten-pound pails in a day. If 
a colony is unusually slow in taking the syrup, the process may be hurried 
by rewarming the syrup. 
Various Ways of Wintering. 
In the North bees may be wintered in the cellar or outdoors. In lo- 
calities where the average winter temperature is below 25 degrees F., and 
where snow continuously covers the ground for several months, beekeepers 
who have good stores and dry, well-ventilated cellars that may be made 
dark and left at an even temperature somewhere between 45 and 50 de- 
grees F., may winter inside to advantage. - Those wintering outdoors in 
the North will need either double-walled hives or else suitable packing- 
eases for their single-walled hives. And even in the southern states some 
packing is a decided advantage, leaving the colonies in a much stronger 
condition in the spring. This lighter protection may be in the form of 
light packing-cases, but even wrappings of paper will be quite worth while. 
Any protection ‘against wind is a help. 
Wintering Outdoors. 
_ In cold climates it is necessary that colonies wintered outdoors have 
plenty of ‘packing in order to retain the heat; for, when the temperature 
inside the hive falls below 57 degrees F., the bees are obliged to generate 
heat by their own activity, which activity compels the use of a greater 
amount of stores and also an accumulation of feces within the bees. This 
often brings abont. dysentery and death, especially when the stores are 
not of the best quality. Even in those cases in which dysentery does not 
result, the individual bees of the colony are so worn out by their efforts 
to keep up the 
| temperature of 
the hive that in 
the spring these 
old bees die 
more rapidly 
than they ean be 
replaced by the 
young emerging 
bees, and thus 
the condition 
called “spring 
dwindlin g” 
gradually dimin- 
| ishes the colony, 
ey: often rendering 
This apiary is well protected on the north and west by a natural = 
windbreak of trees. it worthless. 
Necessity of Windbreaks. 
When preparing for winter a good natural windbreak 10 to 15 feet 
high should without fail be on the most exposed sides of the apiary 
101 
