20 BULLETIN 685^ U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTUKE. 
Table V. — Honeybees: Winter losses, causes and percentages of — Continued. 
Causes and percentages of winter losses. 
State. 
Lack of young 
bees. 
Miscellaneous 
and unknown. 
Total loss of 
colonies. 
1914- 
15 
1915- 
16 
1916- 
17 
1914- 
15 
1915- 
16 
1916- 
17 
1914- 
15 
1915- 
16 
1916- 
17 
Arizona 
P. ct. 
2.5 
P. ct. 
P. ct. 
1.5 
P. ct. 
5.0 
P. ct. 
0.7 
1.6 
.3 
1.9 
.5 
1.5 
.1 
1.0 
P. ct. 
0.2 
.6 
.5 
P. ct. 
9.2 
2.0 
10.5 
5.0 
5.9 
19.8 
3.9 
5.0 
P. ct. 
4.8 
7.1 
11.0 
1.9 
10.5 
17.8 
20.4 
8.5 
P. ct. 
9.0 
3.9 
30.4 
14.7 
46.6 
9.0 
20.0 
10.0 
Utah 
1.0 
.3 
5.0 
.6 
1.0 
.5 
.9 
Nevada 
1.1 
0.2 
.4 
.3 
.5 
Washington 
Oregon 
1.6 
California 
.4 
U. S. average 
.4 
.2 
.2 
2.8 
.9 
.9 
12.6 
13.3 
10.1 
CAUSES OF WINTER LOSS. 
The principal causes of winter loss, as reported, are shown 
by States in Table V, being in order starvation, cold, queen- 
lessness, weakened condition resulting from disease or poor 
honey, such as late unripened aster for the winter food sup- 
ply, a small cluster of bees due to late swarming or other 
causes, and lack of young bees from any cause but due 
usually to a failing queen or an unfavorable autimin for 
brood rearing. 
Starvation, the most frequently reported cause of loss, is 
entirely preventable, and losses from cold may also be 
greatly lessened. The other factors are more difficult to 
control, but losses can be greatly minimized by intelligent 
care and attention. The losses shown in Tables IV and 
V unquestionably considerably understate the average loss, 
because they represent in the main the experience of the 
better beekeepers. Those who keep bees housed in kegs, 
thin store boxes, sections of hollow logs (giuns), and similar 
receptacles, giving them no attention beyond ^'robbing" 
them annually of their honey, often at the most inopportune 
time for the bees, leaving no reserve of food to carry the col- 
ony through periods of summer drought and winter cold, and 
lacking knowledge of the nature and cure of the diseases and 
other ills that occasionally afflict bees, are naturally the ones 
