48 



PREPARATION FOR WINTER 



Whether wintered in cellar or outdoors, the bees should 

 be puit in condition for this trying ordeal earlier in the season. 

 One of the most important things in successful wintering is tO' 

 have plenty of young bees in the colony. If no nectar is com- 

 ing in, the queen stops laying early in the season and the best 

 results are not obtained. To remedy this, we may feed thin 

 honey or sugar syrup in small quantities each day, or every few 

 days, until the latter part of- September. This will insure a 

 good force of young bees for winter. We should also see that 

 all failing queens are replaced with young queens of stock 

 which have made satisfactory records in the sections. This is 

 the final test of a good queen, one whose bees give results in 

 the supers. Where single walled hives are used, it helps greatly 

 to cover the brood frames with several thicknesses of paper 

 with the coming of the first cold days of fail. This helps to 

 conserve the warmth of the colony and to keep up brood rear- 

 ing and tends to decrease the consumption of honey. 



TIME TO TAKE BEES EROM THE CELLAR 



The time when cellar wintered bees should be placed in the 

 open varies with the seasons. As a rule, if the bees are quiet 

 and have wintered well, they should not be taken out until near 

 the time when they can find natural pollen. If the spring is 

 warm and sunny, they had better go to summer location as 

 soon as the snow is gone and weather seems settled. Select for 

 this work a day that bids fair to be warm and ^unny. A cloudy 

 day, if warm, is all right but not as dependable. 



The temperature ought to be nearly sixty degrees F., and 

 seventy is even better. Begin in the morning as soon as warm 

 enough for bees to fly, usually about nine or ten o'clock. If 

 one could be certain of the day they could be taken out sooner.. 

 Where a large number of colonies are to be taken out, one must 

 start quite early as it is best to have all go out the same day if 

 possible. If a windy day, or a breeze is blowing, bees are apt 

 to drift to quite an extent. In some cases colonies to windward 

 may have their numbers depleted to a point where they are 

 very weak, while colonies on the opposite side of the yard may 



