XII. 



PREPARING FOR WINTER. 



My studies in the literature of bee-keeping had 

 taught me that wintering was a rock upon which 

 the business had often foundered. The bee-keeper 

 has had fair success in securing honey ; his increase 

 of swarms has been sufficient ; he goes into winter 

 quarters with a large number of stocks, and has 

 great expectations for the next year. But these 

 expectations are doomed to bitter disappointment. 

 His bees die during the winter and spring. Even 

 his largest swarms dwindle down to a handful, or 

 entirely disappear. From his two or three score 

 stocks, in apparently good condition in the fall, he 

 will have in the spring scarcely a half dozen weak 

 and dispirited ones. He throws up bee-keeping in 

 disgust. 



It was long thought that this state of things could 

 not be helped. Success depended entirely upon 

 " luck." Bees wintered well or ill without any par- 

 ticular cause for the one or the other. Not seldom 

 the good farmer still puts his bees into box hives, 

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