344 Beekeeping 



Object of winter protection. 



In providing extra protection to the colonies outdoors 

 or in placing them in special cellars, the object of the bee- 

 keeper is to reduce the expenditure of energy on the part 

 of the bees. As was shown earlier (p. 128), a worker bee 

 may for all practical considerations be considered as capable 

 of only a certain amount of work and when this work is 

 performed the bee dies. Consequently if too much energy 

 is expended during the winter the entire colony may die, 

 or if some bees still live they are unable to do the work re- 

 quired of them in the spring. To conserve the energy to 

 the fullest extent there are numerous external factors which 

 must be considered by the beekeeper in planning for the 

 winter. 



Requirements for successful wintering. 



Before discussing the methods advocated for the care of 

 bees in winter, it will be well to name the factors which are 

 essential to the activities of bees during this season. First 

 of all, to winter well, a colony must be large enough to gen- 

 erate heat and to conserve it economically. It should 

 also contain a great number of young bees, full of vitality 

 and capable of prolonged heat production should this be- 

 come necessary. To accomplish these requirements breed- 

 ing should be prolonged in the fall. The colony should 

 also have a good queen capable of keeping up egg-laying 

 rather late and then able to permit the colony to build up 

 rapidly to full strength the following spring. 



Winter stores. 



The colony should be provided with an abundance of 

 food of good quality. No food better than good honey has 

 ever been found for bees and the safest plan is to leave enough 

 in the hives to supply the bees without feeding. Not all 

 honeys are equally good and in general it is safe to consider 

 the lighter honeys preferable. The fall honeys are not 

 considered as good as those obtained earlier. There are 



