2 BULLETIN" 325, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
needed to carry a colony through the winter and give it a good start 
at brood-rearing in the spring. 
An interesting circumstance shown by a comparison of the figures 
in column 4 is that there seems to be little variation between the 
supply of food required to winter a colony in the different parts of the 
country, notwithstanding that the period in the Northern States 
between the fall and spring nectar flows (evidently interpreted by 
many reporters as the period between honey flows yielding a surplus) 
is shown in column 2 as from 7 to 9 months, with the bees confined to 
the hive for as much as 3 or 4 months at a time (column 3) without 
opportunity for a cleansing flight, while hi the Southern States the 
interval shown between nectar flows is from 4 to 6 months only, and 
confinement to the hive ranges from a month down to but a few days 
at a time. The explanation of this uniformity in food requirements 
under greatly varying conditions is not entirely clear, though the 
comments accompanying the reports indicate that it may be due in 
part at least to the greater activity of bees during the winter season 
as one proceeds southward, the warm days permitting the winter 
cluster to be frequently broken, with the bees active and flying out. 
Also in many sections of the South brood-rearing throughout the 
winter is quite frequent, while in the North colonies which are well 
cared for and are not compelled to battle with extremely low tem- 
peratures are less likely to begin brood-rearing prematurely. 
The percentage of the colonies given winter protection, as shown 
in column 6, g, very high in the Northern States, drops off rapidly to 
almost nothing south of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and in the 
Southwestern and Pacific Coast States. In the extreme North a 
favorite mode of wintering is shown (column 6, a) to be in cellars, in 
the less extreme Northern States mostly by means of double-walled 
and packed hives (column 6, b), while farther south such occasional 
protection as is given is usually confined to supers packed with 
absorbent material, to wrappings of tar paper, etc., around the hive, 
the emplo}Tnent of windbreaks or open sheds, the partial covering of 
the hive with straw, etc. A number of reports from the Western 
Plateau States mention the practice of covering all but the entrance 
of the hive with straw overlaid with earth. 
The losses during the past winter, as will be seen by reference to 
column 7, j, Table 2, generally range from 15 to 20 per cent in the 
more northerly States of the white-clover belt, from. 5 to 15 in the 
lower portions of that belt and in the Southeastern and South-Central 
States, and in the neighborhood of 5 to 10 per cent in the important 
honey-producing States Of Texas, Colorado, Utah, and California, 
with but 2 per cent in Arizona. The average for the entire country 
is 12.6 per cent. 
