168 BEEKEEPING 



results from a colony wintered in a thin 

 walled hive in a cold climate, or even in 

 a better hive placed in a windy location." 



The third factor that I mentioned at 

 the beginning of this chapter was that of 

 numbers — the population of the bee city. 

 A small colony will not have enough bees 

 to form a cold resisting cluster in severe 

 weather. They will bunch up in a com- 

 pact ball and the number on the inside 

 will not be great enough to generate the 

 needful heat. There will be no surplus 

 of warm bees to crawl out of the cluster 

 and relieve the cold members of the insu- 

 lating layer. Consequently the entire 

 cluster becomes chilled through and qui- 

 etly passes on to a bee heaven where there 

 is plenty of white clover and no smoke. 



In order that the bees may winter to the 

 best advantage the colony should be 

 strong in numbers at the end of the sum- 

 mer and these bees which are to winter 

 over should be as young as possible. In 

 other words, brood rearing should be en- 

 couraged up to the time of frost. 



