6 THE AGRICULTURAL SITUATION FOR 1918. 
wind. Whenever the temperature of the air surrounding the bees in 
winter falls below 57 degrees F. the bees generate heat by muscular 
activity. This causes a greater consumption of food, a corresponding 
increase in the amount of water generated by the bees and the accumu- 
lation of an indigestible residue in the intestines. It also greatly 
reduces the vitality of the individual bee. By protecting the hive 
abundantly the heat of the colony is conserved and heat generation 
is reduced to a minimum. A failure to take proper care of bees in 
winter is the source of the greatest loss now experienced by beekeepers, 
and this applies to almost all parts of the United States; yet it is a 
simple matter to protect the bees in the hives—one which will put 
more dollars in the farmer’s pockets and more bees in his hives. 
In the spring bees require not only abundant stores and protection, 
as in the winter, but they also require plenty of room for rearing the 
brood. If the hive is insulated to excess this room may be given the 
previous fall, so that if bees are properly packed for winter there 18 
nothing further the beekeeper can do to insure a strong colony early 
in the year. It would seem that with such simple requirements it. 
would be impossible for any beekeeper to fail in having strong colonies 
early in the season, The truth is, however, that colonies of proper 
strength are rarely seen early in the spring. From coast to coast and 
from Canada to the Gulf even commercial beekeepers are utterly fail- 
ing in this simple essential. The failure is directly due to a lack of 
knowledge of the requirements of bees or to a belief that, because bees 
do not all die in unprotected hives, special care in winter is not 
needed. Here, then, is a leak in the beekeeping industry which should 
be stopped. The number of bees which goes into the hive in the fall 
is important, but if any are found dead in the spring, even the industry 
of the bee cannot overtake the handicap of reduced numbers and 
strength. 
A second, and in some regions an equally important, consideration 
is keeping the colonies from swarming. Where a colony divides itself 
into two parts by swarming, neither part is able to gather as much 
surplus honey for the beekeeper as the original colony might have 
done. The old-time beekeeper counted his success by the number of 
swarms which issued, but the modern beekeeper realizes that unre- 
stricted swarming is one of the greatest sources of loss. To prevent 
swarming entirely, or even to handle swarms so as to overcome this 
source of loss, is the most difficult task confronting the beekeeper in 
some regions, while in others the problem is almost absent. No in- 
fallible method of swarm prevention has been found, owing probably to 
the fact that the cause of swarming is not yet known in spite of the 
strenuous effort to solve this mystery of the hive. However, practical 
methods of prevention and control have been evolved so that in profit- 
ing by the work of others a beekeeper can largely overcome this diffi- 
