20 BTTLLETIN 685, U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGBICULTimE. 

 Table V.^ — Honeybees: Winter losses, caibses and percentages o/— -Continued. 



CAUSES OP WINTER LOSS. 



The principal causes of winter loss, as reported, are shown 

 by States in Table V, being in order starvation, cold, queen- 

 lessness, weakened condition resulting from disease or poor 

 honey, such as late unripened aster for the winter food sup- 

 ply, a small cluster of bees due to late swarming or other 

 causes, and lack of young bees from any cause but due 

 usually to a faihng queen or an unfavorable autumn for 

 brood rearing. 



Starvation, the most frequently reported cause of loss, is 

 entirely preventable, and losses from cold may also be 

 greatly lessened. The other factors are more difficult to 

 control, but losses can be greatly minimized by intelligent 

 care and attention. The losses shown in Tables IV and 

 V imquestionably considerably imderstate the average loss, 

 because they represent in the main the experience of the 

 better beekeepers. Those who keep bees housed in kegs, 

 thin store boxes, sections of hoUow logs (gums), and similar 

 receptacles, giving them no attention beyond "robbing" 

 them annually of their honey, often at the most inopportime 

 time for the bees, leaving no reserve of food to carry the col- 

 ony through periods of summer drought and winter cold, and 

 lacking knowledge of the nature and cure of the diseases and 

 other ills that occasionally afflict bees, are naturally the ones 



