serve the heat of the cluster. It is desirable to have the greater 

 majority of these bees young ones. A bee may be copnpared to a dry 

 battery: When it emerges, it has a definite amouut of vital energy 

 and as it has not the power of producing more, when this is expended 

 the bee dies. Whenever the temperature of the hive falls below 57 

 degrees Fahrenheit, the bees cluster and those on the inner portion of 

 the cluster expend this vital energy in an effort to raise the temper- 

 ature by muscular activity. Thus it may readily be seen how im- 

 portant it is to have young bees, for older ones, not having so much 

 energy to expend, would die before spring. The more bees you have 

 to act as insulators the greater is the amount of heat conserved and 

 consequently, the less work the bees on the inside of the cluster have 

 to do, the greater is the amount of energy saved to work with in 

 the spring. 



A good, young queen, as a rule, will produce more young bees 

 for winter than an old one. A colony which has a young queen will 

 generally recover more rapidly in the spring. 



If, as cold weather approaches,, the bees do not have stores 

 enough they must be fed. Every colony should have from thirty-five 

 to fifty pounds of honey, depending on the length of the winter and 

 the methods of wintering. Feeding should be done at the end of the 

 fall brood rearing and should be in the form of a heavy sirup, two 

 and one half parts of sugar to one part of water, to which a level tea- 

 spoonful of tartaric acid to twenty pounds of sugar is added to pre- 

 vent granulation. There are a number of very good feeders on the 

 market, but the cheapest method is to take a friction top pail. 

 Punch a few small holes in the cover, fill it with sirup and place 

 bottom side up over the brood nest^ — an empty super should be placed 

 over the pail and the cover upon this super. It is advisable to pack 

 gunny sacks about the pail to prevent the escape of heat from the 

 cluster. Some beekeepers place a super of honey beneath the brood 

 nest and leave it there all winter, which is considered a very good 

 plan. The bees will carry this honey up and place it about the brood 

 nest where it is very desirable to have it. When wintering in two 

 hive bodies, it is considered a better plan to place this super above 

 the brood chamber after the bees have filled the brood nest. Other- 

 wise there is. danger of dead bees filling the spaces between the 

 frames and causing the suffocation of the remaining bees. 



7 



