37 
consideration. In other words, indoor wintering should be left to such 
experienced bee keepers as may prefer it and are located in cold 
climates, while novices, wherever located, should first endeavor to meet 
the requirements of successful outdoor wintering; that is, to prepare 
the colonies so that Nature, whatever her mood as regards the weather, 
will bring her tiny charges safely through the perils and vicissitudes 
of the winter months. 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
Whatever method be followed in wintering, certain conditions regard- 
ing the colony itself are plainly essential: First, it should have a good 
queen; second, a fair-sized cluster of healthy bees, neither too old nor 
too young; third, a plentiful supply of good food. The first of these 
conditions may be counted as fulfilled if the queen at the head of the 
colony is not more than two years old, is still active, and has always 
kept her colony populous; yet a younger queen—even one of the cur- 
rent season’s rearing, and thus but a few weeks or months old—is if 
raised under favorable conditions, much to be preferred. The second 
point is met if brood rearing has been continued without serious inter- 
ruption during the latter part of the summer and the cluster of bees 
occupies, on a cool day in autumn, six to eight or more spaces between 
the combs, or forms a compact cluster 8 or 10 inches in diameter. 
Young bees, if not well protected by older ones, succumb readily to 
the cold, while quite old bees die early in the spring, and others, which 
emerged late in the summer or autumn preceding, are needed to replace 
them. The third essential—good food—is secured if the hive is lib- 
erally supplied with well-ripened honey from any source whatever, or 
with fairly thick sirup, made from white cane sugar, which was fed 
early enough to enable the bees to seal it over before they ceased fly- 
ing. The sirup is prepared by dissolving 3 pounds of granulated sugar 
in 1 quart of boiling water and adding to this 1 pound of pure extracted 
honey. Twenty to 25 pounds for outdoor wintering in the South, up 
to 30 or 40 pounds in the North, when wintered outside with but slight 
protection—or, if wintered indoors, about 20 pounds—may be con- 
sidered a fair supply of winter food. A smaller amount should not be 
trusted except in case much greater protection be furnished against the 
effects of severe weather-than is usually given. A greater amount of 
stores will do no harm if properly arranged over and about the center 
of the cluster, or, in case the combs are narrow, wholly above the clus- 
ter. In many instances it will be a benefit by equalizing in a measure 
the temperature in the hive, as well as by giving to the bees greater 
confidence in extendiag the brood nest in early spring. 
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